Regional Security in the Middle East and North Africa: Developing an Institutional Framework for Cooperation?
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Book
Author
Furness, Mark
Corporate name
European Commission / Directorate General for External RelationsDate
2007-12-31Subject headings
Middle East ; North AfricaAbstract
The Middle East and North Africa is a security interdependent region, where governments are
caught in a classic prisoners’ dilemma. They are well aware that cooperation would be less
costly than conflict, and yet they have been reluctant to agree formally on rules governing
security interaction in the region. The inability to escape the prisoners’ dilemma is usually
blamed on the persistence of conflict in the region, especially between Israel and the
Palestinians. This paper argues that the reasons why four multilateral institution-building
efforts have not managed to bring about region-wide security cooperation go beyond
persistent conflict. Regional governments have been unable to overcome historical enmities,
and conflicts have served the purposes of domestic elites in pursuing their preference for
preserving their domestic power. In a perfect world MENA governments would be able to
overcome these differences without outside assistance. In the current political climate an
external actor is needed, but the United States, the European Union and its members have yet
to settle on a common position on security in the MENA region.