Regional Geography of the Middle East and the Mediterranean
Regional geography of the Middle East and Mediterranean tests the links between aridity, oil, water, population, and political geography.
Middle East
The region is mostly arid and semi-arid, with mountain rimlands in Turkey and Iran. It contains about 500 million people. Oil and gas dominate the Gulf economies, which are rentier states: governments earn resource rents and distribute benefits. Water is scarce; the Nile, Tigris–Euphrates, and Jordan are transboundary. Israel is a small, high-income, water-scarce economy.
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean rim has a Csa climate: dry summer, wet winter. The northern shore is richer (EU members), the southern shore younger and more rural. Migration, tourism, and agriculture shape the coast. The sea is a trade route and a migration route.
Worked example
Why do Gulf states have high GDP per capita but low agricultural output? Oil exports generate enormous income per worker, while heat, low rainfall, and poor soils make farming costly. They import food and use desalination for water. Income comes from capital-intensive extraction, not land.
Traps
Do not equate Middle East with Arab-Turkey and Iran are not Arab; not every Middle Eastern state is oil-rich; Mediterranean climate occurs only on the rim, not in the Sahara; and do not ignore water as a strategic issue.