Introduction

With the collapse of the Middle East peace process, the ''war on terrorism'' and US-led intervention in Iraq, the question of Middle East regionalism(s) has reached a new salience. Will such developments usher in a new wave of transnational politics, as events reverberate through a Middle East made even more permeable by new information technologies and transregional religious networks?

Or will authoritarian states successfully insulate themselves from such effects? What impact will globalization have on local identities and local politics? To what extent might issues of regional permeability be mediated by class, gender, ethnicity, population migration, or other factors?

The contributors to Persistent Permeability? address such questions from a variety of analytical perspectives. In doing so, they offer a valuable contribution, essential for all those interested in Middle East politics and international relations.