“WEAK STATE” SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: A HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION

Abstract

“Weak state” security conception has come into being as a major contribution of Third World and Critical Security Studies. This conception has improved on the traditional one, but the same cannot be claimed for the conception of “weak state”. Considering empirical, methodological and political controversies surrounding weak state security, this work does not assume weak state security, but inquires instead into its origins and formation. It argues for historicising the “weak state” and contextualizing security issues thereof. To this end, this article explores “weak state” security through a historical sociological investigation of state formation inspired from Tilly’s bellicist theory of state in the Middle Eastern context. Middle Eastern experience vindicates the idea that state formation and production of security is a spatio-temporally distinct process. The work concludes with a discussion of both drawbacks and promises of the bellicist theory of weak state in explaining the conception and practice of security in the region.