This volume examines different dimensions of the turbulent regional politics of the Middle East from the 2003 US invasion and occupation of Iraq to the decade after the 2010–11 Arab uprisings. This period has been among the most turbulent and politically unstable in the region's contemporary history. Turbulence during this period included the 2003 US invasion and occupation of Iraq and the resulting civil war and political instability, and the 2010–11 Arab uprisings and the civil wars, proxy warfare, regime break-down, state collapse and the refugee flows that followed. This critical period also entailed intense regional rivalry, competition, and shifting alliances in addition to different forms of regional and international intervention. All of this contributed to widespread insecurity for a number of states and societies in the region, prompting some states to attempt to reshape the region in ways more favourable to their interests. This volume traces and seeks to explain the dynamics of the struggle to shape a new Middle East regional order during this period through detailed case studies of regional turbulence.

A Violent Era in Transition

The 2003 Iraq war produced greater insecurity within Iraq and destabilised the surrounding region. It altered the balance of power in the Middle East, activated sectarian identities and inflamed sectarian tensions. The war also intensified the rivalry between two regional powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran, while dramatically reducing the US appetite for further military intervention in the region.

The 2010–11 Arab uprisings then fractured the old regional order which was primarily organised around Middle Eastern states’ relationship with the US. The previous order was characterised by a division between so-called ‘moderate Arab states’ aligned with the US and the so-called ‘axis of resistance’, states and non-state actors opposed to US and Israeli regional hegemony: Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas. Ironically, the common characteristic of states in both camps was that they were authoritarian. In fact, the region was frequently described by some scholars as consisting of ‘stable authoritarian’ regimes.

The uprisings, and then the armed conflicts and devastating civil wars that developed in Syria, Libya and Yemen, and earlier in Iraq, also weakened these states, in some cases resulting in their collapse. The weakening of states and the breakdown of regimes had profound consequences for these societies. But it also affected other states in the region.