The third decade of the 21st century started out with extremely dramatic events. The COVID-19 pandemic, the armed conflict in Ukraine, the exacerbating Russia-West confrontation, the rapid strengthening of the global role of the global majority countries (countries outside the Western alliance), the global food crisis and aggravated environmental threats taken together have spurred the long process of collapse of the international political system, leaving out of sight what may come to replace it.
The world has crumbled. As was foretold, the order has given way to anarchy, and there’s no end to it in sight. The time to come of age seems to have arrived, but no one can say what it really means and what the new adult world will look like.
Polycentricity is a sacred concept, but how can we fill it with specific content and use it to make a long-cherished image of a fairer, appealing and reliable future a reality? The Middle East appears almost redundant in this new brutal and uncertain reality. The violent upheavals that unfolded there over a decade drew everyone’s attention, but now they have suddenly found themselves almost on the fringes of international politics.
Even though the region is still there and its ongoing crises and conflicts have remained unresolved, and some of the Middle Eastern countries are vocally asserting themselves in the international arena, the future of the Middle East in the new world appears uncertain. We will try to outline it in our analysis of intra-regional and global factors.
