The formation of regional security order in the Middle East: Actor-structural analysis

The Middle East has not been defined as a region with definite borders and continuity, neither in the historical sense nor in the military sense. However, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iraq have been included in the Middle East region in every definition made until today. In this thesis, the civil wars and coup processes in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Syria were examined by taking into account the historical sequence. In this thesis, answers were sought to the following questions: "What is the impact of international armed conflicts on regional security in the Middle East in the example of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia? What is the role of the internal dynamics of these countries in the formation of international conflicts? Which external dynamics affect the perception of threat and security in these countries? The most crucial factor here is to understand these countries' economies, internal dynamics, military structures, and armament processes correctly and to know the possible and direct effects of these factors in conflicts. Therefore, in the study, depending on the induction method, first a country-based analysis was made. It has been examined how the countries in question achieved economic wealth and then how they used this economy in the arms race. By making the best use of this process, Saudi Arabia turned into an oil-rich state and quickly transferred this economic income to education as well as armament. Another factor that comes into play here is undoubtedly the internal dynamics. Even though Saudi Arabia experienced coup attempts in this process, the absence of ethnic and sectarian differences made it easier to maintain stability in the country. Unlike Saudi Arabia, internal dynamics along with the coups in Egypt have also affected the country's policy. Due to the fact that Egypt has landed on both continents, its problems spread to two continents. In Africa, it has faced hybrid threats such as the Blue Nile problem and the inability to extend the population distribution to the whole country. Subsequently, Egypt once competed with Israel as an external threat in the Middle East region but later became a rival with Saudi Arabia in North Yemen. With the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Arab Spring process, the country experienced unstable periods. However, the emergence of an environment of international conflict directly in the country has also been blocked. In Syria and Iraq, on the other hand, the ethnic, sectarian, and tribal identity problems, as well as the economic and social problems brought on by the drought, destabilized the country. Both states, whose internal dynamics are so complicated, have turned into an arena of international conflicts. In this context, all four countries mentioned above have faced both classical and asymmetric threats. In order to analyze these threats, the securitization theory of the Copenhagen school and the classical threat perception of Realism were used, and both internal, external, and environmental factors of the countries in the region were used holistically in the study, depending on two perspectives. Keywords: Securitization, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabi