Few studies of Middle East wars go beyond a narrative of events and most tend to impose on this subject the rigid scheme of superpower competition. The Gulf War of 1991, however, challenges this view of the Middle East as an extension of the global conflict. The failure of the accord of both superpowers to avoid war even once regional superpower competition in the Middle East had ceased must give rise to the question: Do regional conflicts have their own dynamic? Working from this assumption, the book examines local-regional constraints of Middle East conflict and how, through escalation and the involvement of extra-regional powers, such conflicts acquire an international dimension. The theory of a regional subsystem is employed as a framework for conceptualising this interplay between regional and international factors in Tibi's examination of the Middle East wars in the period 1967-91. Tibi also provides an outlook into the future of conflict in the Middle East in the aftermath of the most recent Gulf War.

Combines historical and conceptual analysis of Middle Eastern warsNew Part Five shows the new pattern of security following the interstate war and looks at the future pattern of conflict following the end of the Cold War

Preface Preface to the Second Edition Introduction: Middle Eastern Wars from the World Historical and International Systemic Perspectives PART 1: THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM AS A CONFIGURATION OF REGIONAL SUBSYSTEMS: THE CASE OF THE MIDDLE EAST The Science of International Relations: Between Globalism and Regionalism The Middle East: Its Location and Delimitation PART 2: FROM ARAB RENAISSANCE (NAHDA) TO THE SIX DAY WAR OF 1967: THE NEW HISTORICAL EPOCH AFTER JUNE 1967 The Six Day War of 1967: The Background and Multifaceted Character of an Escalated Regional Conflict The Regional and International Repercussions of the Six Day War: The End of Nasserism and the Beginning of a New Historical Epoch PART 3: THE 1973 OCTOBER WAR: THE REGIONAL DYNAMIC OF THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT AND THE SUPERPOWERS. ARMS, OIL AND SHIFTS IN REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCES The Yom Kippur, Ramadan or October War? Historical Continuity from the Six Day War to the Nineteen Day War The Superpowers and the October War October 1973: The War with Arms and the War with Oil: Petro-dollar Power and the 1973-77 Saudi-Egyptian Axis; its Revival during the Iran-Iraq War and Its Aftermath PART 4: THE GULF WAR, ITS LINKAGES AND BACKGROUND: REGIONAL DYNAMIC AND THE FRAGMENTATION OF THE MIDDLE EAST IN THE POST-COLD WAR ERA The Middle East between the 1973 October War and the 1990-91 Gulf War: An Epidemically Militarised Region of Conflict? From the Iraq-Kuwait Conflict to the Gulf War The Historical Context of Conflict and War in the Middle East in the Light of the Gulf War PART 5: NEW SECURITY AND REORDERING THE MIDDLE EAST AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY: THE NEW CHALLENGES Notes and References Bibliography Index