The Ever Elusive Middle East ... An Emperical Look at the Shifting Middle East Sub-Regions
Abstract
The premise of this paper is that membership of a state in a regional subsystem is not a static proposition, but one to be treated as an empirical question. Sub-systemic boundaries and member positions within the subsystem are subject to change and evolve over time as actors move up and down the regional pecking order and in and out of various subsystems. A "regional subsystem" is an empirically defined group of at least two or more countries who consistently interacted together, and who are recognized internally and externally as a distinctive arena. It is possible to determine the actor composition of a subsystem without relying exclusively on subjective opinion. By avoiding empirical methods of system identification, one is never sure of what is being measured or what changes are evolving over time. This paper's analysis uses the United Nations' General Assembly Roll Call votes as its source for interaction data. The voting periods used are the 38th to the 42nd sessions for its recent cold war period data and the 48th to 51st for the period immediately following the fall of the Berlin Wall. UN voting alignment blocs in the Middle East reflects both a country's political and social ideology in its relations with other countries in the region. This paper displays empirically defined cohesive blocs of states for the periods indicated, which tend to have high levels of interstates agreement, constituencies, and or ideologies which can be reflected by the public United Nations' roll call vote.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 05, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA367632
Entities
People
- T. S. Lloyd
Organizations
- United States Army War College