Middle East and North Africa - MENA

Ever heard the term “Greater Middle East?” How about “WANA?” Well, we’re here today to let everybody know that MENA, which stands for Middle East and North Africa, is roughly synonymous with both of those terms.

MENA is a region that generally and usually includes the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. We say “generally and usually” because sometimes other countries are included (like Afghanistan, Cyprus, and Somalia) and sometimes they aren’t. But by and large, MENA extends from Morocco to Iraq and down into northern Africa.

Anyway, this is important because not only is MENA home to at least 6% of the world’s population (depending on how many countries we’re counting), but it’s also sitting on a ton of oil and gas reserves, and is typically an area of high political turmoil. All of these facts combined make it a very interesting area to keep an eye on, economically, politically, and socially. Popcorn's ready.