Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines how regionalism is studied in IR and what is here called the metanarrative of stages in studies of regions and regionalism. It explores how some concepts advanced by poststructuralism can help the field to overcome the limitations imposed by ideas of region makers that make regions, teleological progression in regionalism, automatic synonymy between regionalism and regional cooperation, and unchallenged antinomy between regionalism and regionalization. The book describes the capital flows in the Arab region and discusses how and why the relations between oil and non-oil producing Arab countries are increasingly determined by the shape and the course the Arab region making process is taking. The book presents the movement of peoples across, but nonetheless inside, the blurry, imprecise and fuzzy limits of the Arab region will be examined.