Introduction

1In the early twenty-first century, 30 years after the end of the Cold War, the Middle East comes across as an arena of incessant conflict attracting global attention. As evinced by accelerating South-to-North human mobility in the Mediterranean and the rise (and fall) of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, it is difficult to exaggerate the centrality of Middle Eastern insecurities to world politics. By adopting a critical approach to thinking about security in the Middle East, this study addresses an issue that continues to attract the attention of students of world politics.