ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the evolution of four geopolitical inventions of security in the post-Cold War era: the Arab world, the Euro-Mediterranean, the Muslim world, and the New/Greater Middle East. The spatial representations of the Arab world and Muslim world have proven popular among non-state actors, some of whom have actively opposed Middle East regionalism. The post-Cold War era witnessed two new attempts to revive Middle East regionalism. The first was labelled the ‘New Middle East’ after a book by the same name written by the Israeli Labour politician Shimon Peres. The second attempt was called the ‘Greater Middle East Initiative’ and proposed by the United States in 2002 as part of the Global War on Terror. Both the ‘New Middle East’ and ‘Greater Middle East’ initiatives were presented to local actors as modelled after the Western European experience of security community building.
