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2. Security Dilemmas in Arab Politics
- University Press of Florida
- Chapter
- Additional Information
2 Security Dilemmas in Arab Politics A major theme in the literature on state behavior in international relations is that of the “security dilemma,” in which states find that their attempts at ensuring national security through military build-ups can in fact lead to greater insecurity. The “classic” security dilemma refers to an external dynamic of arms racing and spiraling regional insecurity; but as I will argue in this chapter, in the Arab states system there is an internal dynamic as well. Arab states, in short, face not one security dilemma, but two. In the pages that follow, I demonstrate how and why this is the case, but for the present it is worth stating some of the implications of this different dynamic at the outset . For in addition to the heightened regional insecurity associated with the external security dilemma, this more multi-faceted security dynamic also yields profound domestic costs. These can include reproducing a domestic political environment conducive to bureaucratic-authoritarian and military regimes—a climate inhospitable to hopes for increased democratization.1 The central point of the security dilemma in its classic form is one of irony; that is, that state behavior can create consequences that are the reverse of those intended. The same holds true for the expanded security dilemmas explained in this chapter. Thus the real importance of this dynamic is in its ironic and inadvertent result: greater insecurity. I argue that Arab regimes, in attempting to provide for their own security and survival, have created an interactive internal-external dynamic—in short, a cycle—that too often provokes hostility and opposition not only from neighboring states but also from their own societies. In a region not short on real causes for conflict, such inadvertent provocation only adds to the security-obsessive mind-set of many Arab regimes. Yet it is in this very cycle that the ultimate paradox lies: specifically, that even as the coercive and military strength of Arab states steadily grows, so too does the domestic and regional insecurity of Arab regimes. This suggests, therefore, that a better understanding of the internal as well as external security dilemmas facing Arab states will have implications for our corresponding understandings, not only of the international rela- 24 / Chapter 2 tions of the Middle East, but also of internal state-society relations, including prospects for political development, state-building, and democratization . In addition, this more multifaceted approach to the security dilemma of Arab states may therefore provide clearer linkages between domestic and systemic levels of analysis, between issues of military security and socioeconomic development, between Western and non-Western conceptualizations of security, and finally, between comparative politics and international relations.2 As central as the security dilemma concept has become in international relations theory, ultimately its relevance and applicability turn on definitions of key terms as basic as state and, of course, security. Indeed, these concepts are central not only to Realism and Neorealism, but also to theoretical challengers such as Neoliberal Institutionalism.3 All of these dominant paradigms in international relations theory, however, are drawn mainly from Western experience and may require modification in order to fit more appropriately the empirical circumstances of non-Western areas such as the Arab states system. It is necessary, therefore, to re-examine these key concepts in international relations theory and security studies, particularly when focusing on the Middle East and other post-colonial regions.4 I will therefore turn first to a reassessment of state and security in the Arab system and the Third World (a topic that has received some attention in the recent literature), and then move on to address the heretofore unexplored implications of the multiple security dilemmas facing Arab states. Rethinking State and Security in Arab Politics A central theme of this chapter is to explore the proposition that the nature of the state, security, and the security dilemma are different enough in the Arab political context, and indeed throughout the so-called developing world, that each of these concepts needs to be reassessed for greater theoretical and empirical understanding of the international relations of states beyond simply those of post-industrial Europe and North America. While the issue of security in general has been reassessed in the recent literature on Arab or “Third World” politics, the specific security dilemma dynamics presented here have not. It is necessary, however, to focus first on state security in order to make sense of the true nature of the security dilemma—or dilemmas—facing Arab states...