The Re-Sectarization of the Middle East: Minorities, Communities and Identity Politics within the Current Geopolitical Confrontation

The Middle East and North Africa region appears more divided and fragmented than ever before, with a multitude of flashpoints and geopolitical shatterbelts that threaten the architecture of the State and favour the disintegration of the postcolonial political order. One of the most poisonous gifts of those geopolitical tensions has been the worsening of inter-community relations within the societies of the Middle East, at both the ethnic and cultural-religious levels. To understand this complexity, it is therefore fundamental to analyse the complex matrix of relations among communities, majorities and minorities, within the post-colonial Arab political system and the role played within the current geopolitical confrontation.