Investigating the Impact of Coronavirus on the Crisis Environment in the Political Systems of Islamic World with Emphasis on the Middle East

Middle East states, especially monarchies, have always faced diverse crises including legitimacy. Domestic instability and regional unrests can be considered as the consequences of these crises, and Coronavirus pandemic will cause to deepen the crises sharply at various arenas (Problem Statement). The current article seeks to answer the question of how the Coronavirus crisis has changed power arrangements and nature of governance in Middle East political systems and what are its possible consequences. We have had a descriptive-analytical approach and utilized library and Internet sources to collect data (method). It seems that previous crises in Middle East countries have been intensified under the impact of global coronavirus crisis at economic, political and social levels and we can say briefly that coronavirus has led to intensify crisis environment in the Middle East (hypothesis). In order to prove the the hypothesis, the present article describes identity, legitimacy, political participation, penetration and convergence in the the pre- and post-corona era in these societies and examines the impact of the coronavirus crisis on internal structures, power relations and foreign interactions of these countries. Research findings reveal that Coronavirus crisis, among other factors, is likely to strengthen authoritarianism in monarchies, expand nationalist tendencies, deepen the nation-state divides, and widen the gap between rich and poor states in the Middle East (Results).