Transport infrastructure and regional integration in the Middle East

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El-Anis, I. ORCID: 0000-0002-6918-4544, 2021. Transport infrastructure and regional integration in the Middle East. Muslim World, 111 (1), pp. 27-53. ISSN 0027-4909

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/muwo.12371

Abstract

The soft aspects of the infrastructure of regionalism in the Middle East have previously been studied, while the impact of the region’s hard infrastructure, in particular transport infrastructure, has received little attention. This paper contributes to the study of regionalism in the Middle East by investigating the relationship between hard infrastructure and economic integration. It analyses whether the state of domestic and cross-border transport infrastructure in the region promotes regional trade. This is done by addressing the following sub-questions: 1) What is the condition of domestic and cross-border transport infrastructure in the Middle East? 2) What is the relationship between domestic and cross-border transport infrastructure and regional trade? These questions are answered by examining Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Turkey as a representative sample of the broader region. It is argued that regionalism relies on the development of domestic and cross-border transport infrastructure and where the latter is limited, regionalism cannot deepen. The study concludes that domestic and cross-border transport infrastructure performance is weak in several of the countries studied and that this weakness hinders regional economic integration regardless of the level of the region’s soft infrastructure.

Item Type:

Journal article

Publication Title:

Muslim World

Creators:

El-Anis, I.

Publisher:

Wiley

Date:

7 February 2021

Volume:

111