Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality - Chapter 30 - West Asia and North Africa
Welcome back to a new year! Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024. This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 30 - West Asia and North Africa - contributed by Josepha Wessels. From the introduction West Asia tends to be called ‘Middle East’, a term embedded in Eurocentric geopolitics and colonialism, whereby the region is referred to in relationship to their proximity to Europe. The region has large quantities of the most vied natural resources on this planet: oil and gas. The role and power of energy supply systems cannot be ruled out in defining international diplomacy ( Jones, 2012 ; Mammadov, 2018 ). Countries and nation-states of Europe, the US, China, and Russia, have a vested strategic military and geopolitical interest in this region (Jones, 2012; Mammadov, 2018). Diplomatic ties with fossil fuel producing countries in the region, that are far from liberal demo...