The Frailty of Authority. Borders, Non-State Actors and Power
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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 List of abbreviations ..................................................................................................................................... 9 Preface, by Nicolò Russo Perez ............................................................................................................... 11 Introduction, by Lorenzo Kamel ............................................................................................................ 15 1. Early Warning Signs in the Arab World That We Ignored – And Still Ignore by Rami G. Khouri ................................................................................................................................... 19 2. The Weakness of State Structures in the Arab World: Socio-Economic Challenges from Below by Francesco Cavatorta ....................................................................................................................... 35 2.1 The revenge of regions ............................................................................................................... 38 2.2 Overcoming exceptionalism .................................................................................................... 49 3. State Vacuums and Non-State Actors in the Middle East and North Africa by Florence Gaub ..................................................................................................................................... 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 4. Proxy Agents: State and Non-State Alliances in the Middle East by Kristina Kausch ................................................................................................................................. 67 4.1 Non-state actors as a foreign policy tool ........................................................................... 69 ..................................................................................................................... 71 4.3 Proxy agents, statehood and regional stability ............................................................. 81 4.44.2 IncreasingInfluential agencyalliances in a global context ................................................................................. 83 5. (In)security in an Era of Turbulence: Mapping Post-Statist Geopolitics in the Middle East by Waleed Hazbun .................................................................................................................................. 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 ............................................................... 99 ............................................................................................ 101 5.75.5 LessonsThe reconfiguration from the Lebanese of US power case .......................................................................................... in the region 103 5.6 A regional conflict of networks 6. Hybrid Partnerships in Middle East Turbulence by Raffaele Marchetti and Yahya Al Zahrani ............................................................................ 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 7. A “Natural” Order? States, Nations and Borders in a Changing Middle East by Lorenzo Kamel ................................................................................................................................ 123 ............................. 124 cui prodest? .................................................................. 127 7.37.1 “Artificiality”A “natural” order? and the ...................................................................................................................... Middle East: Deconstructing a pattern 133 7.2 “Artificial” states and peoples: ............................................................................. 138 7.4 Toward a “post-artificial” perspective Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................. 141 6 List of contributors is Assistant Professor, College of Strategic Sciences, Yahya Al Zahrani 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) is Senior Fellow at the Istituto Affari Internazionali - burg’sLorenzo Institute Kamel for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), and non-resident As- (IAI), Marie Curie Experienced Researcher at the University of Frei (CMES) sociate at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies is Senior Resident Fellow at the German Marshall Kristina Kausch Fund of the United is Adjunct States (GMF), Professor Brussels of Journalism and Senior Pub- - ternationallyRami G. Khouri syndicated columnist, and a non-resident Senior Fel- lic Policy Fellow at the American University of Beirut (AUB), an in low at the Harvard Kennedy is Senior School Assistant Professor in International Raffaele Marchetti Relations at the Department of Political7 Science and the School of THE FRAILTY OF AUTHORITY Government of Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli di Roma (LUISS),is the Coordinator Rome of International Affairs at the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation in Turin Nicolò Russo Perez 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 is experiencing a number of complex and overlapping crises. From environmentalEnglish poet Alexander challenges Pope. to citizenship The Mediterranean, and the weakening broadly defined, 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