Publisher's Synopsis
The words "tribe", "tribalism", and "tribal" produce wide ranging definitions and context when used in literature and research. The words are typically associated in a negative context to classify a society as "primitive." This paper does not classify whether tribal society is a positive, or a negative, aspect of Middle East society. Instead its purpose is to establish whether or not a causal link exists between the independent variable tribal influence (denoted as IVt), and the dependent variable political stability (denoted as DVps), in present day Middle East states. The paper is organized into six main sections. Section I defines tribe as used throughout the context of this paper. Section II describes why this paper is relevant to military leaders and planners. Section III defines the DVps, the research data sources used to determine DVps, the validity of the data source, and the limitations in data application. Section IV defines the IVt, research data resources used to assess the IVt, the validity of the data sources, and limitations in data application.
