By: Shivangee Bhattacharya, Research Analyst, GSDN

For the major part of the modern history, the Middle East & North African (MENA) region has always been in some conflict or the other. The region’s diverse and vital resources have always made it crucial for the rest of the world. The conflicts that have been present for the last few decades have also made it a point of discussion as trade and commerce gets affected easily. In the period of the 19th century, the European colonizers have always invaded the Middle East for the procurement of natural resources and for its geostrategic location. In this article, we will be focusing on the importance of the Middle East and also try to highlight the mineral resources, wealth, demography, and most importantly, geopolitical location. The exploitation of the resources majorly led to the rise of conflicts in the area; the article tries to highlight it as well.

Starting with the basic concept of resource exploitation, it is evident that the Middle East is flourishing with resources. Mostly, when the discussion takes place, it focuses on the material power of a state, the spending on military and economic output. The scholars suggest that the state’s power is measured through its capabilities to spend, and it’s the work force it holds within a large population. The Middle East region holds more than the fossil and oil power—its demographic and geostrategic power of the regional parties. The regional parties exploit the existing resources, such as gas and oil, in accordance with their convenience, which often results in the strategic image of the state worldwide. The Middle East has also had “Youth Bulge,” referring to the large population of youth working for the economy; the factor of a well-educated population plays an important role in the upliftment of institutions. Finally, when a state has a large population with a well-educated working force and economic power, it creates a strong image in front of the neighbour. The factors change the political dynamics of the state. Examples like Turkey and Iran have created their influence and also successfully used their resources for the benefit of economies.

The major part on which to focus is the economic power of the region; the region holds great importance because of its natural resources. According to reports released in 2015, the Arab countries, which constitute only the 5.2% population of the world, enjoyed 55.2% of the world’s oil reserves and 27.5% of the world’s natural gas (Joint Arab Economic Report 2015). Despite having flourished resources, the region suffers from internal economic ups and downs. Still, the states are products of instability and insecurity. The region is often affected by the destabilization of the political system. This factor of instability and insecurity has created risks of challenges that have altered the international relations dynamics at the global arena.

The regional reconstruction of the political system in the region has created major issues for the Middle East to shine on the global level. The regional dynamics get influenced by the international events. The instability also keeps the Middle East in the news, which makes the world leaders re-evaluate their policies. The instability and conflicts create the geopolitical importance for the Middle East as its functioning creates major decision-making processes. Also, the region faced civil unrest, wars, and revolutions, which unfortunately led to an increase in humanitarian crises. The humanitarian crisis majorly welcomed the increase in terrorism.

The conflicts directly affect commerce and trade as the region falls in the middle, making the crossroads for Europe, Asia, and Africa. It does it as a strategically important in the geopolitics. It does have a history of commerce getting affected due to turmoil in the region. The assurance for peace and harmony in the Middle East is harder to maintain as political and religious still continue to prevail.

The point of religious turmoil also makes the region both conflict-prone and culturally diverse in the world. The Middle East and areas of Africa consist of different religions, like majorly Islam, which is in practice, but with that Christianity, Judaism, and a practicing population. The religion has a global implication in the world as well; religious conflicts often lead to political turmoil and have the tendency to create political instability, which is directly proportional to effects in international relations. Religion also plays a crucial role in the establishment of relations between the states. The world leaders prefer the state that follows a similar type of religion and ideology related to it.

The region has also come out to be a competition for the other global powers like the US, European Union, Russia and China. The global power comes with their insecurity related to power maximization. The power maximization is related to military strength, natural resource flourishment and having global power. Commerce and trade have a significant part to play in it as well. As the Middle East has natural resources and also has a great economy, the global powers try to influence the region according to their interests by exerting diplomatic relations with leaders. Developing relations with the middle eastern leaders helps them to exert power in the region in order to advance their interests.

With diplomatic relations, the economy and globalization have a major part in creating the Middle East important for global geopolitics. Middle Eastern countries have resources from which other countries get benefits. MENA has significance in the increase in trade and economics; it gives a boost to global trade, and there are numbers suggesting an increase in global ties. Economic development is crucial for the overall prosperity of the world’s development. There is a negative impact of it as well; due to overexploitation of resources, it can lead to unemployment and degradation of the environment, which has an adverse impact on the health of the global environment.

In conclusion, the importance of MENA is multifaceted, which comprises energy, strategic location, religion, culture, a series of dynamic conflicts, and economic development. These factors make MENA a strategic partner for world leaders; creating diplomatic relations and engaging in dialogues helps in strengthening relations between them. In return, the world powers have a component to ask for in return of that, majorly natural resources, and MENA being the crossroad for Europe, Asia, and Africa. MENA’s location has had geopolitical importance for the past few decades. It is also a politically and conflict-oriented area that causes destabilization in the region and it has also importance in the drafting of foreign policies of other countries according to their self-interest. In recent organizations like the G21, Middle Eastern and African nations got recognition and gave the significance through policies and offering membership by India. India also, through the IMEC (India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor), showed the strategic and geopolitical importance of the region by inculcating the Middle East into its grand economic project.