Non-Traditional Security in the Middle East and North Africa

This book explores how non-traditional security (NTS) issues are reshaping the political and strategic landscape in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Moving beyond conventional state-centric and militarised approaches, the book analyses how environmental stress, food and water insecurity, public health vulnerabilities, gender and societal insecurity, migration, and demographic pressures have become central to national policy agendas in the MENA region. Drawing on extensive regional case studies from the Gulf, the Levant, and North Africa, it examines how governments, communities, and non-state actors (NSAs) interpret and respond to these multidimensional challenges. The book highlights why some states in the region securitise NTS threats, why others pursue governance-based responses, and how globalisation, conflict, and climate change intensify existing structural pressures. Accessible and empirically grounded, this book provides a systematic framework for understanding NTS in a region undergoing rapid political, social, and environmental transformation.

This book will be of much interest to students of security studies, Middle Eastern studies, and international relations.