164 Sigrid Faath and hanSpeter Mat teS
5.3 The conf lict situation in the MENA countries
We now take a closer look at the conf licts that have occurred over the
last few decades in the MENA countries, in an attempt to categorise them
and gain some insight into the future probabilities of such conf licts in the
region.^7
The many conf licts that have arisen in the region occur, generally speak-
ing, either between sovereign countries or between regions within a country
(for overviews, see Gantzel & Meyer-Stamer 1986; Pfetsch 1990, 1996). In
addition, there is the special case of the Middle East conf lict since 1948
which – because of the nature of the wars between Israel and the neighbour-
ing Arabic countries in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973 and 2006, and the special status
which Israel had in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip up to 2006 – contains
elements of both types of conf lict. The Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003, involving
a considerable number of countries both within and outside the region,
went far beyond the typical bilateral conf lict between countries. The Gulf
Wars also differed in that they began as struggles between countries, but
ended up more as internal conf licts (see Iraq after 2003).
5.3.1 International and transnational conf licts
The international and transnational conf licts that have occurred to date can
be put into three categories: conf licts as part of the decolonisation process,
conf licts with an ideological background, and conf licts concerning the
protection of ‘minorities’. In addition, there are two conf licts that cannot
be included in these categories: the Arab-Israel conf lict and the Gulf Wars.
Decolonisation conf licts constitute the largest category of all conf licts,
the roots of which go back to the decolonisation process and the drawing
of territorial boundaries of the new national states in postcolonial times
(Drysdale & Blake 1985; Mattes 1995). Since the 1950s, the MENA countries
have experienced four very different forms of territorial conf lict, exacer-
bated in part through the Cold War (Chagnollaud & Soulah 2004).
1 Attempts to reinstate one’s sovereignt y over national territor y or to reclaim
such territor y. Examples are Tunisia’s actions to win back the Bizerte
area controlled by the French (1961), Morocco’s ambitions to establish
7 The basis for these statements is the def inition of ‘(armed) conf lict’ given by SIPRI (n.d.): ‘An
armed conf lict is a contested incompatibility which concerns the government and/or territory
where arms are used and at least one of the actors involved is a representative of the state’s
government’.