¶ … Middle East/Gulf, a region that is not well defined (Hatipoglu,2004) is shaped by its various regional geographies as well as and its geo-economic importance. The Greater Middle East region is very important due to its abundant economic resources as well as its strategic location in linking Asia, Africa and Europe. Hatipoglu (2004,p117) indicated that the region's geo-strategic value coupled with its geo-economic value effectively places the region in the epicenter of the global politics. The region hosts the world's largest gas and oil reserves. About three quarters of the global oil resources are located in thirteen nations of the Greater Middle East. In this essay, we describe how the Greater Middle East region is shaped by its various regional geographies as well as and its geo-economic importance.
Short summary
The Greater Middle East/Gulf, a region that possesses immense geo-economic as well as geo-strategic value is greatly shaped by the various regional geographies and its geo-economic factors that it possesses. These assertions have great implication to global energy security as well as general security as a consequence of its abundant supply and volatility respectively.
Regional geographies
Middle East vs. Gulf vs. North Africa
The Middle East and North African political unrest
The recent Middle East and North African political unrest is a perfect example of how the Greater Middle East/Gulf is shaped by itself (Blanchard,2011;Billon and Khatib,2003;Shah,2011).The underlying common Arab nationalism and socialist ideologies that these regions shared are the key factors that harmonized the running of these governments. However, the general populations of the Greater Middle East have stood up to oppose the dictatorial tendencies of the ruling regimes in these regions. The fact that the systematic wave of resistance in the form of uprisings and protests to the incumbent Great Middle East regimes is therefore a clear indication that the region is realigning itself/shaping itself ideologically as well as politically. These realignments are viewed by the international security as appositive move. However, concerns over its implications to the global security in regard to terrorism has also been voiced (Flandro et ak.,2011).Others have viewed the Arab revolt as a great 'opportunity' for fighting terrorism (Holden and Maclean,2011). The revolt was as a consequence of the rather extremely authoritarian and extremely conservative ideology that never gave their citizens personal freedom. The revolt therefore indicates that ideologically the Greater Middle East regions shaped it in two distinct forms. The first form is in regard to leadership styles. In regards to leadership, the Leaders in this region were all authoritarian and harbored conservative ideologies. The second form is in regard to the need for personal freedom. This has been displayed in the level of opposition that the citizens of the Greater Middle East have put up in order to oppose their authoritarian regimes that shared anti-American sentiments.
Geo-economic importance
The Greater Middle East region shapes itself in various ways.
Oil supply and international trade routes
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