MENA

  Commonly accepted as MENA countries.

  Sometimes also considered part of the region.

The term MENA is an English-language acronym referring to the Middle East and North Africa region. The term MENA covers an extensive region, extending from Morocco to Iran, including all Middle Eastern Mashriq and Maghreb countries. The term is roughly synonymous with the term the Greater Middle East. The population of the MENA region at its least extent is considered to be around 381 million people, about 6% of the total world population. The MENA acronym is often used in academia, military planning, disaster relief, and business writing.^[1][2]

Controversy

Due to the geographic ambiguity and Eurocentric nature of the term "Middle East", some people prefer use of the terms 'Arab World, WANA (West Asia and North Africa)^[3] or the less common NAWA (North Africa-West Asia).^[4] Both the Arab World ^[5] and MENA region remain the most common terms and are used by most organizations, academia, and political entities flexibly, including those in the region itself. The World Bank,^[6] UNDP ^[7] and even the UNSC^[8] all use both terms.

List of countries

MENA has no standardized definition; different organizations define the region as consisting of different territories. The following is a list of commonly included countries and territories.^[1][9]

Sometimes also included in broader definitions of MENA:^[10][11]

Economy

The MENA region has vast reserves of petroleum and natural gas that make it a vital source of global economic stability. According to the Oil and Gas Journal (January 1, 2009), the MENA region has 60% of the world's oil reserves (810.98 billion barrels (128.936 km³)) and 45% of the world's natural gas reserves ( 2,868,886 billion cubic feet (81,237.8 km³) ).^[12]

As of 2011, 8 of the 12 OPEC nations are within the MENA region.

Other terms

MENAP

From April 2013, the International Monetary Fund started using a new analytical region called MENAP (Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan), which adds Afghanistan and Pakistan to MENA countries.^[13] Now MENAP is prominent economic grouping in IMF reports.^[14][15]

MENAT

The term MENAT has been used to include Turkey in the list of MENA countries.^[16][17]

Instability in the region

Due to rich resources, mainly oils and gas, adding with its location between three continents (Asia, Africa and Europe), the MENA region has been at conflict since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire: notably the creation of Israel, a Jewish state among the Arab countries; rise of terrorism; Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Iran-Saudi Arabia proxy conflict; conflict between Berbers and Arabs. It comes to its highest peaks at the 21st century: the U.S. intervention of Iraq at 2003; the rise of ISIS; Arab Spring that spreads wars to whole region such as Syrian Civil War, Iraq War; Libyan Civil War and Yemeni Civil War.

See also

Look up MENA in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• List of business region acronyms
• Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
• Middle East economic integration
• Greater Middle East
• Near East
• Arab world
• Arab Spring
• Arab Winter
• Subsaharan Africa
• African Union
• OPEC

References