The National Security Economics of the Middle East: Comparative Spending, Burden Sharing, and Modernization Main Report FINAL REVIEW DRAFT AUTHORS Anthony H. Cordesman and Abdullah Toukan March 22, 2017 Please address comments and suggestions to
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[email protected] Photo credit: FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images Cordesman/Toukan MENA National Security Economics 22.3.17 ii The National Security Economics of the Middle East: Comparative Spending, Burden Sharing, and Modernization Final Review Draft Anthony H. Cordesman and Abdullah Toukan March 20, 2017 Please address comments and suggestions to
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[email protected] Cordesman/Toukan MENA National Security Economics 22.3.17 iii The economics of national security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have changed dramatically since 2001. Counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and internal security have emerged as having the same priority as military forces, and the rise of non- state actors, the use of proxies, and the increase use of asymmetric warfare have changed the nature of warfighting as well. Nuclear and missile threats are not new to the region, but they are a rising threat, and one that affects the cost and shape of many of the region’s military forces. Internal security has also increased in priority and in cost. The 9/11 attacks made it clear that violent Islamist extremism posed a major threat inside and outside the region, a threat reinforced by the al Qaeda attacks in side Saudi Arabia in 2011, and by the emerge of ISIS and its claims of creating a “Caliphate” in Syria and Iraq in 2011.