Karim Mezran and Arturo Varvelli published this month a report with the Atlantic Council and the Italian Instituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI). Entitled 'The Arc of Crisis in the MENA region: Fragmentation, Decentralization and Islamist Opposition', the study is structured around Zbigniew Brezinski’s”arc of crisis” concept, formulated in 1978, which describes the emergence of an arc of instability stretching from the Indian sub continent to the Atlantic Coast of North Africa. The aim of the report in which contribute a dozen of researchers is to address the search for political legitimacy in the MENA region in recent years and the progressive fragmentation of authority. The study highlights three core issues in the search for political legitimacy in the MENA: decentralization, political Islam as an alternative for legitimacy and the discovery of new resources in the energy sector in the Eastern Mediterranean.Click here to read the report.
The Search for Political Legitimacy in the MENA