A Critical Reflection on the " Logic of Defining the Regions" and the " Prevalent Approaches in Regional Studies" Case Study: Middle East

Naming the regions and demarcating the boundaries of a land are not merely a neutral label to be pinned to a geographical region so much as a logic emanated from the research approaches to that region. That is, names of different regions should be regarded as “concepts” rather than “names.” Reciprocally, prevalent approaches in regional studies influence upon geographical demarcation and expansion of a research region as well as upon the conceptual weight of that region. “Middle East” is, in the prevalent approaches, one of the most subtle and complex regions of the world. This article is aimed at investigating the effects of titling this region on the prevalent approaches, on the one hand, and probing separately the Europocentric naming and ineffectual traditions of the Middle East studies, on the other. Middle East, as is known today, is synonymous to a security-based land of intense chaos, in which cultural elements are totally ignored. Whereas the Middle East studies, in their rudimentary form, were influenced by Orientalism, they are at present highly impacted by the tradition of international relations. Western secular epistemology, which has infiltrated in the nature of international relations, is unable to shed a glaring light on the region-related issues. An urgent revision in naming the research approaches was found to be indispensable in order to analyze the regional occurrences, after a glance was given to the contemporary evolutions of the region. The key question of the present article, toward which we are intending to proceed, is “What are the logics, standards, and criteria of defining a region, in general, and the region, in particular, in order to make possible a survey consistent with historical and cultural realities, present-day needs of the society, and the national institutions located thereon?” The alternate option offered by this study is the idea of “Western Asia” as a native, intrinsic concept, and the “Western Asia Studies” directed toward historical and cultural, added to security, political, and legal, studies.