ABSTRACT
Issues relating to political reform in the Middle East have attained unparalleled significance across a range of international policy concerns. The Middle East is a case study that is uniquely compelling in the way it reveals the international domain’s profound and complex impact on political processes. In the context of this volume, this chapter on the Middle East proceeds from a striking peculiarity: while other contributions have analysed international factors in cases where democratic transitions did take place in the Middle East, we must assess their relevance in a context where democratization has not (yet) occurred. The chapter offers assessment of the role played in the Middle East by a number of international dimensions: Western relations with authoritarian regimes across the region; transnational networks; and the relationship between the global economy and the prevalence of rentier economic structures in the Middle East.
