(Dis) Integration and the Emergence of the State System in the Middle East

The fall of the Ottoman Empire during World War One and theemergence of the modern state system in the Middle East have receivedsignificant attention in academic literature. However, the impacts thatthe proliferation of state borders in the 19th and 20th centuries havehad on political and economic integration within the Middle East isoften ignored. This study argues that between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries the region underwent significant structural changes.Furthermore, these changes were driven by external intervention andinternal decline. A number of theoretical assumptions are positedconcerning the importance on integration and cooperation of thefollowing: the increase in borders and claims to sovereignty and theseparation of peoples/markets. The conclusions drawn are that thechange from a system characterised by large political actors andintegrated markets to one which is characterised by smaller states andseparated markets led to the disintegration of the region’s internalrelations.