Balance of Power or the State-to-Nation Balance

Explaining Middle East War-Propensity

Bibliographic Data

ID6121568
AuthorsBenjamin Miller (0000-0002-4003-1587, University of Haifa, corresponding author), Benjamin T Miller (0000-0002-2745-7794)
Year2006
Volume15
Issue4
Pages658-705
Publication date2006-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSecurity Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0963-6412 • E-ISSN: 1556-1852
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09636410601184587
OpenAlexW2003650801
LanguageEN
Citations received9

The Middle East is one of the most war-prone regions in the international system. What is the most powerful explanation of the war-propensity of this region? I argue that neither realism nor liberalism are able to account for variations in regional war-proneness. Instead, I advance an alternative explanation based on the concept of the state-to-nation balance in the region. This balance refers to the degree of congruence between the division of the region into territorial states and the national aspirations and political identifications of the region's peoples. The balance also refers to the prevalence of strong versus weak states in the region. Thus, I explain the Middle East's high war-proneness by focusing on its relatively low level of state-to-nation balance. This imbalance has led to a powerful combination of revisionist ideologies and state incoherence. While other regions suffer from state incoherence, powerful revisionist nationalist forces, notably pan-nationalist and irredentists (the “Greater State”), aggravate this problem in the Middle East. These revisionist forces are often transborder and are especially powerful in the Middle East because of the high degree of external/transborder incongruence in comparison with all other regions. The combination of nationalist revisionism and state incoherence has made the Middle East more prone to violence than most other regions

Balance (ability) · Development economics · Economics · Great power · Ideology · Liberalism · Middle East · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · State (computer science) · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Psychology

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