In the Maghreb and Middle-East – amid a strategically tense and unsteady regional context – nation building has either come back or emerged as a central and structuring factor of the functioning of States and societies. The phenomenon, which has been amplified by the uprisings of the last decade in the Arabic world and in Iran, is revealing the new precedence now given to the national framework when conducting domestic and foreign affairs as well as the rejection of both foreign interference and transnational utopias. This global return to the national level triggers enquiries as to what its dynamics are but also as to the contradictions and oppositions it encounters as events and crises stir the whole region. It brings out the tensions between state nationalism and international islamism, the hardships several countries face in the process of becoming viable Nation-States but also hints at a potential return to one or several regional hegemons.
