THE PAN-ARAB VERSUS THE ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE ON SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
THE PAN-ARAB VERSUS THE ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE ON SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Summary/Abstract: In the broader context of more or less scientific discussions regarding a global “Islamic threat” and of the mainstream interpretation of the Middle East as a region to which the classic realist theory of International Relations fits par excellence, various actors made numerous attempts to solve the regional security problems. From the variety of such security perspectives, tributary to different perceptions rooted in different philosophical and strategic backgrounds, the present article discusses comparatively the “pan-Arab” and “Islamic” perspectives as the only endogenous, bottom-up, constructed approaches to regional security. Not necessarily accepting, but only understanding them, may offer precious insights, further useful in meeting the external, top-down approaches “half way” in order to provide viable alternative solutions for regional security in the Middle East. Methodologically, the comparison is underpinned by the “Copenhagen school” triadic analytical framework of referent security subject, object and threat, applied at different levels of analysis to different dimensions of security – military, political, economic, societal and environmental.

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