The Frailty of Authority. Borders, Non-State Actors and Power Vacuums in a Changing Middle East

162 Pages·2017·1.18 MB·English

The Frailty of Authority
Borders, Non-State Actors
and Power Vacuums
in a Changing Middle East
Lorenzo Kamel
The FrailTy oF auThoriTy
Borders, NoN-sTaTe acTors
aNd Power Vacuums
iN a chaNgiNg middle easT
edited by
Lorenzo Kamel
in collaboration with
edizioni Nuova cultura
First published 2017 by Edizioni Nuova Cultura
For Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI)
Via Angelo Brunetti 9 - I-00186 Rome
www.iai.it
Copyright © 2017 Edizioni Nuova Cultura - Rome
ISBN: 9788868128289
Cover: by Luca Mozzicarelli
Graphic Composition: by Luca Mozzicarelli
The unauthorized reproduction of this book, even partial, carried out by any means,
including photocopying, even for internal or didactic use, is prohibited by copyright.
Table of contents
List of contributors ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Nicolò Russo Perez
List of abbreviations ..................................................................................................................................... 9
Lorenzo Kamel
Preface, by ............................................................................................................... 11
Introduction, by ............................................................................................................ 15
Rami G. Khouri
1. Early Warning Signs in the Arab World That We Ignored – And Still Ignore
by ................................................................................................................................... 19
2. The Weakness of State Structures in the Arab World: Socio-Economic Challenges
Francesco Cavatorta
from Below
by ....................................................................................................................... 35
2.1 The revenge of regions ............................................................................................................... 38
2.2 Overcoming exceptionalism .................................................................................................... 49
Florence Gaub
3. State Vacuums and Non-State Actors in the Middle East and North Africa
by ..................................................................................................................................... 51
3.1 What is a state vacuum? ............................................................................................................ 53
3.2 A binary relationship: states and non-state actors ...................................................... 55
3.3 State formation in the Middle East and North Africa .................................................. 61
3.4 Beyond state vacuums ................................................................................................................ 64
Kristina Kausch
4. Proxy Agents: State and Non-State Alliances in the Middle East
by ................................................................................................................................. 67
4.1 Non-state actors as a foreign policy tool ........................................................................... 69
4.2 Influential alliances ..................................................................................................................... 71
4.3 Proxy agents, statehood and regional stability ............................................................. 81
4.4 Increasing agency in a global context ................................................................................. 83
5. (In)security in an Era of Turbulence: Mapping Post-Statist Geopolitics
Waleed Hazbun
in the Middle East
by .................................................................................................................................. 85
5.1 The geopolitics of (in)security in the Middle East ........................................................ 89
5.2 Statist order in the Middle East: From consolidation to erosion ........................... 91
5.3 Towards a geopolitics of turbulence ................................................................................... 94
5.4 The dynamics of hybrid actors and networks ................................................................ 97
5
Table of conTenTs
5.5 The reconfiguration of US power in the region ............................................................... 99
5.6 A regional conflict of networks ............................................................................................ 101
5.7 Lessons from the Lebanese case .......................................................................................... 103
Raffaele Marchetti and Yahya Al Zahrani
6. Hybrid Partnerships in Middle East Turbulence
by ............................................................................ 107
6.1 From Westphalia to transnationalism ............................................................................ 108
6.2 Hybrid partnerships ................................................................................................................. 111
6.3 Hybrid politics in the Middle East ..................................................................................... 114
6.4 Future trends ............................................................................................................................... 121
Lorenzo Kamel
7. A “Natural” Order? States, Nations and Borders in a Changing Middle East
by ................................................................................................................................ 123
cui prodest
7.1 “Artificiality” and the Middle East: Deconstructing a pattern ............................. 124
7.2 “Artificial” states and peoples: ? .................................................................. 127
7.3 A “natural” order? ...................................................................................................................... 133
7.4 Toward a “post-artificial” perspective ............................................................................. 138
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................. 141
6
list of contributors
Yahya Al Zahrani is Assistant Professor, College of Strategic Sciences,
Naif Arab University for Security Science (NAUSS), Riyadh
Francesco Cavatorta is Associate Professor in the Department of
Political Science, Université Laval in Quebec
Florence Gaub is Senior Analyst at the European Union Institute
for Security Studies (EUISS), Paris
Waleed Hazbun is Associate Professor in the Department of Polit-
ical Studies and Public Administration at the American University
of Beirut (AUB)
Lorenzo Kamel is Senior Fellow at the Istituto Affari Internazionali
(IAI), Marie Curie Experienced Researcher at the University of Frei-
burg’s Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), and non-resident As-
sociate at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies
(CMES)
Kristina Kausch is Senior Resident Fellow at the German Marshall
Fund of the United States (GMF), Brussels
Rami G. Khouri is Adjunct Professor of Journalism and Senior Pub-
lic Policy Fellow at the American University of Beirut (AUB), an in-
ternationally syndicated columnist, and a non-resident Senior Fel-
low at the Harvard Kennedy School
Raffaele Marchetti is Senior Assistant Professor in International
Relations at the Department of Political Science and the School of
7
The frailTy of auThoriTy
Government of Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali
Guido Carli di Roma (LUISS), Rome
Nicolò Russo Perez is the Coordinator of International Affairs at
the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation in Turin
8
list of abbreviations
ATGW Anti-Tank Guided Weapon
AUB American University of Beirut
CSO Civil Society Organization
ECOSOC United Nations Economic and Social Council
EU European Union
GCC Gulf Cooperation Council
GDF Gaz de France
ISIS Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
JSOC Joint Special Operations Command
KRG Kurdish Regional Government
MANPADS Man-Portable Air Defence System
MENA Middle East and North Africa
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
PKK Kurdistan Workers’ Party
PYD Kurdish Democratic Union Party (Syria)
UAE United Arab Emirates
UK United Kingdom
UN United Nations
US United States
USAID United States Agency for International Development
WWI First World War
YPG People’s Protection Units
9

Preface
Nicolò Russo Perez
“Joins the sea that separates the countries”, wrote the 18th-century
English poet Alexander Pope. The Mediterranean, broadly defined,
is experiencing a number of complex and overlapping crises. From
environmental challenges to citizenship and the weakening of the
state system, from radicalization and the threat of ISIS to the migra-
tion and refugee crisis, Mediterranean societies are facing common
and shared challenges that require a joint vision and response.
The New-Med project was launched in June 2014 with the goal
of establishing a research network of Mediterranean experts and
policy analysts with a special interest in the complex social, polit-
ical, cultural and security-related dynamics that are unfolding in
the Mediterranean region. The network was developed as a pub-
lic-private partnership by the Istituto Affari Internazionali in co-
operation with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) Secretariat in Vienna, the Compagnia di San Pao-
lo foundation in Torino, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
International Cooperation, and the German Marshall Fund of the
United States.
At the core of the New-Med activities stands the need to rethink
the role of multilateral, regional and sub-regional organizations, to
make them better equipped to respond to fast-changing local and
global conditions and to address the pressing demands of Mediter-
ranean societies all around the basin. A priority of the network is to
promote a non-Eurocentric vision of the region, featuring as much
11