Arab Perceptions of Soft Security Issues

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to review, compare, and assess Arab perceptions of ‘soft security’ issues and threats. In achieving this objective, there are two main themes. The first is that the concept of ‘soft security’ is hardly acknowledged in the Arab discourse on security. Although Arab politicians and analysts refer to the issues subsumed under the ‘soft security’ label, the concept itself is hardly employed in Arab public discourse on security. This is because the concepts of ‘softness’ and ‘security’ do not match in Arab thinking as the Arab region is plagued by mostly military and territorial (hard) security issues (chap. 16 by Gamal Selim). The second is that the Arabs have borrowed the concept from the Western literature, and in that literature the concept was vaguely defined, which was reflected in the Arab endorsement of the concept.