THE MIDDLE EAST AT THE CROSSROADS OF GREAT POWER COMPETITON AND REGIONAL AGENCY

Tóm tắt

The Middle East is undergoing a reconfiguration of its regional order driven by two simultaneous forces: strategic competition among great powers (the United States, China, and Russia), and proactive internal transformations led by regional actors. While external rivalries sustain patterns of confrontation and strategic ambiguity, domestic powers increasingly demonstrate the capacity to shape the rules, norms, and mechanisms of engagement through mediation, foreign policy diversification, and internal rebalancing. This article analyzes the interaction between these two vectors and argues that the contemporary Middle Eastern order is no longer governed by a model of absolute hegemony or classical balance of power. Instead, it is transitioning toward a "hybrid order" in which authority is flexibly distributed between external and internal actors. By employing the theoretical frameworks of regional order and post-hegemonic regionalism, the article contends that the process of "Middle Easternization of the Middle East", that is, the growing agency of regional powers is an irreversible trend despite ongoing conflicts of interest. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of order formation in a region long considered a geopolitical flashpoint of the international system.