The Identity Patterns of the West Asia and the Regional Security Order

Despite the new versions of political Islam appearing in the West Asia, three discourse patterns of political Islam can at least be identified, namely: the pattern of Shiite political Islam (revolutionary and transformational) with the Islamic Republic of Iran at the centre; the pattern of Salafi-Wahhabi political Islam (traditional conservative) led by Saudi Arabia; and the pattern of Ekhwani political Islam (civil pragmatist) in Egypt and Turkey. Because of the remarkable and efficient capabilities and characteristics shown by the mentioned-above countries in the West Asia, the regional security order will keep being influenced by the rivalry in these discourse identities. Based on the hypothesis in this article, due to the fundamental conflict that exists in norms, images, beliefs as well as the advent of the competitive and hegemonical nature of the discourses in the West Asia region, it faces a serious challenge to establish an optimal security order in the region. In this research, the idea of evolving the identity of a regional discourse based on the identity commonalities contained in the Islamic civilization has been offered as the nodal point of that discourse in order to establish a regional security order.