This book is about the epochal transition which the states and societies of the Middle East and North Africa have been undergoing since the late 1980s when the region began transforming 'from a warfare to a welfare' system as a result of profound local and international change. Change in the Middle East has taken on distinct local characteristics - for instance in the relationship between religious cultures and politics - and yet is increasingly interdependent with international changes, particularly with competing trends towards globalization and regionalism. The key issue analyzed by the twelve multidisciplinary studies presented in this volume is the interaction between the economic, political, cultural and strategic forces working for and against integration (as yet unexploited) in the Middle East and North Africa.