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Majed MH Al-Ansari

Dr. Al-Ansari is the president of the Center for International Policy Research in Doha, Qatar.

Bulent Aras

Dr. Aras is the research director at the Center for International Policy Research and a visiting professor of international relations at the Gulf Studies Center of Qatar University in Doha.

Emirhan Yorulmazlar

Dr. Yorulmazlar is a fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Policy makers, political and state elites, and civilian and military cadres have grappled with the unprecedented crisis of Covid-19 in the Middle East and North Africa. Against this gloomy backdrop, the main question became whether the region could sustain its traditional security-first policy even though the definition of security has changed. Could the state perpetuate its role as the arbiter of a broken clientelistic contract in a state-led socioeconomic order? Could geopolitical rivalries be upheld against unprecedented domestic challenges? This article tries to illuminate the changing role of the state in the Middle East and North Africa, the rising salience of institutional good governance, and their effects on regional geopolitics in the aftermath of the pandemic.

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