The Middle East is undergoing a historic transformation with unprecedented opportunities to build new relationships, de-escalate tensions, and foster conditions for stronger integration. At the same time, the region remains on edge because of ongoing tensions in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and other conflict zones, a civil war that broke out recently in Sudan, along with the overarching challenges presented by fraught relations between Iran, Israel, and several Arab Gulf countries — with the longer-term implications of the still-fragile Iranian-Saudi rapprochement yet to be fully assessed.
It is difficult to predict where these countervailing trends will take the broader region and this produces an overall environment of uncertainty that offers a complex mix of opportunities and risks. In a new analytical survey of the region’s shifting conflict dynamics, the authors identify two escalation risks and two opportunities to promote de-escalation and foster greater regional integration at the current moment.
Source: Mei Edu