Developmental Perspectives on the Root Causes of the Middle East’s Challenges: The Question of Institutional and Social Adaptability

Abstract

The Middle East and North Africa is considered a region highly prone to instability and conflict, and where religiosity and sectarianism assumes prominence. It is commonly thought that the source of the MENA countries’ troubles is primarily political in nature and hence they require mainly political responses. The region’s historical legacies and geopolitics entailing foreign interventions would only reinforce such perception but ‘hard politics’ clearly has limitations in resolving such challenges. Instead, ‘development’ assumes much more pertinence than meets the eye; the multidisciplinary developmental approach opens a whole new window of opportunity for understanding the nature and root causes of the MENA’s challenges and its way forward, by unraveling the complexities of the region. At the heart of the matter is the question of adapting to the changes of the times, of making the necessary institutional, social-behavioral changes to deal with the reality. The countries’ major challenges are inherently due to their lack of development in the key areas: ‘within-state development’, ‘participatory development’, state capacity, and secularization..