Introductıon to the Economies of the Middle East and North Africa

It is needed to learn and evaluate the general characteristics, processes and relations of national and regional economies and the global economy properly, as well as political relations in order to better grasp the international relations. Moving on from this point, the purpose of this paper is to inform the students of International Relations, particularly the students of Middle East and North Africa, about the economies of these countries. In order to understand the national economies’ structures, processes and relations with each other, it is needed to have a basic knowledge about the economic concepts and magnitudes. For this purpose, the paper initially introduces the basic economic concepts. Then, the conceptual framework and the economic magnitudes at hand serves as a basis for discussing the characteristics of the regional economy and the national economies within. In addition, this paper has aimed to compare the region with the rest of the world in order to make the economic characteristics of the region more comprehensible.