Page 36 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

22 Dubai & Co.

The three-cluster model is indigenous to the Arab world, effec-
tively grouping the MENA region into broad categories each with
distinct histories and environments. Each region has its own character-
istics—geographic, social, political, and economic—that create very
different business environments. The Levant is well-endowed but (in
recent times) rather volatile. North Africa is large and populous, with
moderate GDP per capita. The Gulf is oil-producing, wealthy, and rel-
atively stable, with the highest standard of living in the Middle East. As
the Arabic language—the glue that binds the Arab world—originated
in the Arabian Peninsula and spread east and west, the three clusters
have become part of a single cultural complex while at the same time
each has evolved its own unique identity (see Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2 The Middle East and North Africa (Note: Yemen, a Gulf state,
is not a member of the GCC.)

THE LEVANT: WELL-ENDOWED
BUT CONFLICT RIDDEN
The area known as the Levant is home to one of the world’s oldest
and richest civilizations. The ancient civilization of Mesopotamia,
admired by historians for its institution of the world’s first known
written legal system, is often the starting point for the study of
human cultural and political history. The Levant includes the area