Book Review | Middle East Geopolitics and the Rise of Multipolarity: Global Turning Point

Middle East Geopolitics and the Rise of Multipolarity: Global Turning Point

By Bahrooz Jaafar

January 3, 2026

Springer

205 pages

An analysis of the Middle East’s evolving role in an increasingly fragmented global order, and how regional powers are adapting to the decline of unipolar dominance

Bahrooz Jaafar’s Middle East Geopolitics and the Rise of Multipolarity is a structured academic examination of how global power shifts are reshaping the Middle East. Rather than focusing on individual conflicts or state narratives, the book situates the region within a broader transformation from a U.S.-dominated order to an increasingly multipolar system involving China, Russia, and emerging regional powers.

Jaafar’s central argument is that Middle Eastern instability cannot be understood in isolation. Instead, it is embedded in overlapping global competition, where energy routes, strategic geography, and shifting alliances determine state behavior. The Middle East is presented less as a collection of individual conflicts and more as a strategic corridor where global influence is continuously contested.

Israel appears in the book as one of several regional actors navigating this changing environment. The analysis treats Israel’s security dynamics as part of a wider structural balance involving Iran, Turkey, Gulf states, and external powers. Readers looking for operational military detail or policy advocacy will not find it here – this is a macro-level geopolitical framework, not a defense-focused narrative.

The strength of the book lies in its clarity of system-level thinking. However, its abstraction is also its limitation: it offers limited insight into tactical developments, military doctrines, or the internal decision-making of key regional actors.

Overall, Jaafar delivers a concise but dense geopolitical study best suited for readers interested in international relations theory and long-term strategic trends rather than on-the-ground security analysis.

Bahrooz Jaafar is an Iraqi Kurdish researcher from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the founder of the Mediterranean Institute for Regional Studies (MIRS) in Sulaymaniyah. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from Cyprus International University and specializes in energy geopolitics, regional security, and Middle Eastern strategic affairs. Much of his work focuses on the intersection of global power competition, energy security, and political realignment in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean.