How often countries/territories are included in MENA/WANA definitions:
Usually included
Often included
Less commonly included
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), also referred to as West Asia and North Africa (WANA)[1] or South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA),[2][3] is a geographic region which comprises the Middle East (also called West Asia) and North Africa together. However, it is widely considered to be a more defined and apolitical alternative to the concept of the Greater Middle East, which comprises the bulk of the Muslim world.[who?] The region has no standardized definition and groupings may vary, but the term typically includes countries like Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the UAE, and Yemen.
As a regional identifier, the term "MENA" is often used in academia, military planning, disaster relief, media planning (as a broadcast region), and business writing.[4][5] Moreover, it shares a number of cultural, economic, and environmental similarities across the countries that it spans; for example, some of the most extreme impacts of climate change will be felt in MENA.
Some related terms have a wider definition than MENA, such as MENASA (lit.'Middle East and North Africa and South Asia') or MENAP (lit.'Middle East and North Africa and Afghanistan and Pakistan').[6] The term MENAT explicitly includes Turkey, which is usually excluded from some MENA definitions, even though Turkey is almost always considered part of the Middle East proper. Ultimately, MENA can be considered as a grouping scheme that brings together most of the Arab League and variously includes their neighbors, like Iran, Turkey, Israel, the Caucasian countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a few others.
Definitions
The Middle East and North Africa has no standardized definition; different organizations define the region as consisting of different territories, or do not define it as a region at all.
Variations on definitions of the Middle East and North Africa region.
Areas pundits sometimes associated with the Middle East around 2004
United Nations
The MENA region as defined by the World Bank (2003)The MENA region as defined by UNAIDS, which includes Sudan and Somalia, but excludes Israel, Palestine and MaltaThe MENA region as defined by the IMF (2003), which includes Afghanistan, Mauritania, Pakistan, Palestine, Sudan and Somalia, but excludes Israel and Malta
A 2003 World Bank study stated: "In World Bank geographic classification, the following 21 countries or territories constitute the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates [UAE]), and 15 other countries or territories: Algeria, Djibouti, the Arab Republic of Egypt, Iraq, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, the Republic of Yemen, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, and West Bank and Gaza."[8]:20As of January 2021,[update] the World Bank website groups the same set of 21 countries/territories as MENA: "Algeria; Bahrain; Djibouti; Egypt, Arab Rep.; Iran, Islamic Rep.; Iraq; Israel; Jordan; Kuwait; Lebanon; Libya; Malta; Morocco; Oman; Qatar; Saudi Arabia; Syrian Arab Republic; Tunisia; United Arab Emirates; West Bank and Gaza; Yemen, Rep..".[9]
A 2010 UNHCR report stated: "For the purposes of this study, the MENA region has been defined as comprising of[sic] the following 18 countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen."[12]:2
A 2015 FAO report stated: "The 21 MENA countries are Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen."[13]
The UNAIDS regional classification of the Middle East and North Africa region "includes 20 countries/territories: Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen", according to a 2019 UNICEF report.[10]:11
As of January 2021,[update] the UNICEF website groups the following set of 20 countries as MENA: "Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, State of Palestine, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen."[14]
Working for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), economists Hamid Reza Davoodi and George T. Abed wrote in 2003: "The MENA region comprises the Arab States in the Middle East and North Africa—Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen—plus the Islamic State of Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan, the West Bank and Gaza." The authors emphasise that these "24 MENA countries (...) are grouped together for analytical purposes only." Although they allegedly "share common challenges and cultural links distinct from neighbouring economies" such as Israel and Turkey, and Islam is the dominant religion and Arabic the principal language, there are "sizable religious minority groups" and "significant linguistic diversities" in the MENA region, with Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan not having Arabic as the majority language.[11]
MENA definitions by United Nations agencies and programmes
*Also called State of Palestine, (Occupied) Palestinian Territories, Palestinian Authority, or West Bank and Gaza (Strip).
Other definitions
Historians Michael Dumper and Bruce Stanley stated in 2007: 'For the purposes of this volume, the editors have generally chosen to define the MENA region as stretching from Morocco to Iran and from Turkey to the Horn of Africa. This definition thus includes the twenty-two countries of the Arab League (including the Palestinian Authority enclaves in the West Bank and Gaza Strip), Turkey, Israel, Iran, and Cyprus.' They stressed, however, how controversial and problematic this definition is, and that other choices could also have been made according to various criteria.[16]
For its December 2012 global religion survey, the Pew Research Center grouped 20 countries and territories as 'the Middle East and North Africa', namely: 'Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, the Palestinian territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara and Yemen.'[17]
For the Global Peace Index 2020, the Institute for Economics & Peace defined the MENA region as containing 20 countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.[18]
Due to the geographic ambiguity and Eurocentric nature of the term "Middle East", some people, especially in sciences such as agriculture and climatology, prefer to use other terms like "WANA" (West Asia and North Africa)[19] or the less common NAWA (North Africa-West Asia).[20] Usage of the term WANA has also been advanced by postcolonial studies.[21]
Western Asia (18): Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, State of Palestine, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.
Northern Africa (7): Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Western Sahara.
In a 1995 publication, the then-Aleppo-based International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) defined its West Asia/North Africa (WANA) region as 25 countries, including: 'Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen.'[23] It noted that CGIAR's Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) excluded Ethiopia, Sudan and Pakistan from its 1992 WANA definition, but otherwise listed the same countries.[23] In a 2011 study, ICARDA stated 27 countries/territories: 'The WANA region includes: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gaza Strip, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.'[22]
WANA definitions by (mostly agricultural) organisations
*Also called State of Palestine, or West Bank and Gaza (Strip).
Other terms and definitions
Greater Middle East
In a preparatory working paper for the June 2004 G8 Summit, the U.S. government (at the end of the George W. Bush administration's first term) defined the Greater Middle East as including the Arab states, Israel, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.[7]
MENAP
From April 2013, the International Monetary Fund started using a new analytical region called MENAP (Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan), which adds Afghanistan and Pakistan to MENA countries.[24] Now MENAP is a prominent economic grouping in IMF reports.[25][26]
MENASA
MENASA refers to the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia region.[27] Its usage consists of the region of MENA together with South Asia, with Dubai chosen by the United Nations as the data hub for the region.[6] In some contexts, specifically the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, the region is abbreviated as SAMENA instead of the more common MENASA.
MENAT
The term MENAT (Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey) has been used to include Turkey in the list of MENA countries.[28][29]
The term Near East was commonly used before the term Middle East was coined by the British in the early 20th century. The term Ancient Near East is commonly used by scholars for the region in antiquity. Some organisations and scholars insist on still using 'Near East' today, with some including North Africa, but definitions range widely and there is no consensus on its geographical application.
Sharp global temperature and sea level changes, shifting precipitation patterns and increased frequency of extreme weather events are some of the main impacts of climate change as identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).[39] The MENA region is especially vulnerable to such impacts due to its arid and semi-arid environment, facing climatic challenges such as low rainfall, high temperatures and dry soil.[39][40] The climatic conditions that foster such challenges for MENA are projected by the IPCC to worsen throughout the 21st century.[39] If greenhouse gas emissions are not significantly reduced, part of the MENA region risks becoming uninhabitable before the year 2100.[41][42][43]
Climate change is expected to put significant strain on already scarce water and agricultural resources within the MENA region, threatening the national security and political stability of all included countries.[44] Over 60 percent of the region's population lives in high and very high water-stressed areas compared to the global average of 35 percent.[45] This has prompted some MENA countries to engage with the issue of climate change on an international level through environmental accords such as the Paris Agreement. Law and policy are also being established on a national level amongst MENA countries, with a focus on the development of renewable energies.[46]
Islam is by far the dominant religion in nearly all of the MENA territories; 91.2% of the population is Muslim. The Middle East–North Africa region comprises 20 countries and territories with an estimated Muslim population of 315 million or about 23% of the world's Muslim population.[47] The term "MENA" is often defined in part in relation to majority-Muslim countries located in the region, although several nations in the region are not Muslim-dominated.[48] Major non-Islamic religions native here are Christianity, Judaism, Yazidism, Druzeism, African folk religions, Berberism and other Arab paganism.[citation needed]
Migrant population, mostly within the Gulf nations, practice mostly the beliefs they follow to, such as Buddhism and Hinduism among South Asian, East Asian and Southeast Asian migrants.[49][50]
The demographics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region show a highly populated, culturally diverse region spanning three continents. As of 2022, the population was around 493 million.[51] The class, cultural, ethnic, governmental, linguistic and religious make-up of the region is highly variable.
Debates on which countries should be included in the Middle East are wide-ranging.[52] The Greater Middle East and North Africa region can include the Caucasus, Cyprus, Afghanistan, and several sub-Saharan African states due to various social, religious and historic ties. The most commonly accepted countries in the MENA region are included on this page.
The MENA region has vast reserves of petroleum and natural gas that make it a vital source of global economic stability. According to the Oil and Gas Journal (January 1, 2009), the MENA region has 60% of the world's oil reserves (810.98 billion barrels (128.936km3)) and 45% of the world's natural gas reserves ( 2,868,886billion cubic feet (81,237.8km3) ).[53]
As of 2023, 7 of the 13 OPEC nations are within the MENA region.[citation needed]
According to Pew Research Center's 2016 "Religion and Education Around the World" study, 40% of the adult population in MENA had completed less than a year of primary school. The fraction was higher for women, of whom half had been to school for less than a year.[54]
In its Global Peace Index 2020, the Institute for Economics & Peace stated that 'the Middle East and North Africa remains the world's least peaceful region, despite improvements for 11 countries'.[18] According to an in-depth multi-part study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published in April 2016, the factors shaping the MENA region are exceedingly complex, and it is difficult to find 'any overall model that fits the different variables involved'. It found that there were 'deep structural causes of violence and instability'. Wars and upheavals are partly 'shaped by the major tribal, ethnic, sectarian, and regional differences', by 'demographic, economic, and security trends', and by 'quality of governance, internal security system, justice systems, and [social] progress.' In some countries, the necessary societal factors for successful democratic change (often championed by some in the region and in the West to address various issues) are absent, and political revolutions may not always lead to more stability, nor solve the underlying problems in a given MENA country. However, it also found that 'the majority of MENA nations have remained relatively stable and continue to make progress'.[55]
The Arab world, formally the Arab homeland, also known as the Arab nation, the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in the Arab world are ethnically Arab, there are also significant populations of other ethnic groups such as Berbers, Kurds, Somalis and Nubians, among other groups. Arabic is used as the lingua franca throughout the Arab world.
The U.S.–MEFTA initiative started in 2003 with the purpose of creating a U.S.–Middle East Free Trade Area by 2013.
The dynamic between the League of Arab States and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been ambivalent, owing to the latter's varying bilateral conduct with each country of the former. Iran is located on the easternmost frontier of the Arab League, which consists of 22 Arab countries and spans the bulk of the Middle East and North Africa, of which Iran is also a part. The Arab League's population is dominated by ethnic Arabs, whereas Iran's population is dominated by ethnic Persians; and while both sides have Islam as a common religion, their sects differ, with Sunnis constituting the majority in the Arab League and Shias constituting the majority in Iran. Since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, the country's Shia theocracy has attempted to assert itself as the legitimate religious and political leadership of all Muslims, contesting a status that has generally been understood as belonging to Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia, where the cities of Mecca and Medina are located. This animosity, manifested in the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, has greatly exacerbated the Shia–Sunni divide throughout the Muslim world.
The Arab Parliament is the legislative body of the Arab League. At the 19th Arab League Summit in Amman, the Arab states agreed to create an Arab Parliament, and came up with a resolution to give Amr Moussa the Secretary-General of the Arab League the power to start and create the Parliament.
The Arab world consists of 22 countries located in Western Asia, Northern Africa, the Maghreb, the Horn of Africa, and the Indian Ocean. It covers a combined area of 13 million km2. It extends from Morocco in the west, southward to the Comoros, eastward to Somalia, and northward to Iraq.
The Demographics of the Middle East describes populations of the Middle East, a region covering western and northern parts of the Asian and African continents respectively.
This is a list of the competitive matches played by the Syrian football team since its inception.
The 1964 Arab League summit in Alexandria was held on 11 September 1964 in Montaza Palace, Alexandria as the second Arab League Summit. The focus of the conference was to implement the plans discussed at the first Arab League summit held in January of that year. The summit was notable for being a key step in the buildup to the Six-Day War in 1967 and separately for "approving the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization."
This article provides details of international football games played by the Qatar national football team from 2000 to 2019.
The Mashriq, also known as the Arab Mashriq, sometimes spelled Mashreq or Mashrek, is a term used by Arabs to refer to the eastern part of the Arab world, as opposed to the Maghreb (western) region, and located in Western Asia and eastern North Africa. It is the Arabic equivalent for the term Middle East. Poetically the "Place of Sunrise", the name is derived from the verb sharaqa, from the sh-r-q root (ش-ر-ق), referring to the east, where the sun rises.
The Arab sign-language family is a family of sign languages spread across the Arab Middle East. Its extent is not yet known, because only some of the sign languages in the region have been compared.
This is a list of the Iraq national football team results from 1970 to 1979.
This is a list of official football games played by Saudi Arabia national football team between 2000 and 2009.
The demographics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region show a highly populated, culturally diverse region spanning three continents. As of 2022, the population was around 493 million. The class, cultural, ethnic, governmental, linguistic and religious make-up of the region is highly variable.
This is a list of the Saudi Arabia national football team results from 1980 to 1999.
This is a list of the Saudi Arabia national football team results from 1957 to 1979.
This is a list of the Iraq national football team results from 2010 to 2019.
The Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA), a branch of the Arab League, is a membership organization for Arabic-language, national news agencies, currently of 18 or 19 members and established in 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon.
This article provides details of international football games played by the Kuwait national football team from 1980 to 1999.
References
↑ "Why WANA?". WANA Institute. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
↑ Schuur, Edward A.G.; Abbott, Benjamin W.; Commane, Roisin; Ernakovich, Jessica; Euskirchen, Eugenie; Hugelius, Gustaf; Grosse, Guido; Jones, Miriam; Koven, Charlie; Leshyk, Victor; Lawrence, David; Loranty, Michael M.; Mauritz, Marguerite; Olefeldt, David; Natali, Susan; Rodenhizer, Heidi; Salmon, Verity; Schädel, Christina; Strauss, Jens; Treat, Claire; Turetsky, Merritt (2022). "Permafrost and Climate Change: Carbon Cycle Feedbacks From the Warming Arctic". Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 47: 343–371. doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-012220-011847. Medium-range estimates of Arctic carbon emissions could result from moderate climate emission mitigation policies that keep global warming below 3°C (e.g., RCP4.5). This global warming level most closely matches country emissions reduction pledges made for the Paris Climate Agreement...
↑ Phiddian, Ellen (5 April 2022). "Explainer: IPCC Scenarios". Cosmos. Archived from the original on 20 September 2023. Retrieved 30 September 2023. "The IPCC doesn't make projections about which of these scenarios is more likely, but other researchers and modellers can. The Australian Academy of Science, for instance, released a report last year stating that our current emissions trajectory had us headed for a 3°C warmer world, roughly in line with the middle scenario. Climate Action Tracker predicts 2.5 to 2.9°C of warming based on current policies and action, with pledges and government agreements taking this to 2.1°C.
1 2 3 IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pp.
↑ El-Fadel, M.; Bou-Zeid, E. (2003). "Climate change and water resources in the Middle East: vulnerability, socio-economic impacts and adaptation". Climate Change in the Mediterranean. doi:10.4337/9781781950258.00015. hdl:10535/6396. ISBN9781781950258.
↑ Pal, Jeremy S.; Eltahir, Elfatih A. B. (26 October 2015). "Future temperature in southwest Asia projected to exceed a threshold for human adaptability". Nature Climate Change. 6 (2): 197–200. doi:10.1038/nclimate2833. ISSN1758-678X.
↑ Brauch, Hans Günter (2012), "Policy Responses to Climate Change in the Mediterranean and MENA Region during the Anthropocene", Climate Change, Human Security and Violent Conflict, Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace, vol.8, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp.719–794, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-28626-1_37, ISBN978-3-642-28625-4
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