No analysis of power dynamics in the Middle East and North Africa region can ignore the necessity of a regional order. Understanding the causes of today’s regional vacuum requires the study of why the previous regional order crumbled in the first place and the consequences of this failure, including the popular uprisings across the Arab world.
We can only answer the question of who holds power in the region once this question is placed within the debate over the regional order in the Middle East, which I prefer to call the Sharq region, given the resonance of this word for the people – be they Arabs, Iranians, Kurds or Turks – who live there.