Despite being a fixture of everyday life in the Arab world, wasta, which may be thought of as special influence by members of the same group or tribe, has received little attention from social scientists. Our casual empiricism suggests that wasta is an important determinant of how economic...

Conflicts, development and progress: an introduction -- Insecurity from entitlement failures in the Middle East and North Africa -- Interest group politics and defence spending -- Dynamics of terrorism in a fragmented word: the Middle East and North Africa conundrum -- Conflict management...