Reconceptualizing Security and Political Economy in the Modern Middle East

Abstract We prioritize reorienting prevailing concepts of security within the contemporary Middle East and North Africa through a critical political economy framework. The practices of both waging war and preparing for war – that is, war-making – generate profound consequences for regional societies, but they also remain poorly understood. We advance a more reflexive paradigm that emphasizes how political actors define notions of security on their own terms, and then make appropriate choices based upon their own understandings. In turn, those choices can generate long-term implications, which must be carefully understood by exploring how governments and social communities respond to conflict.