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. Another common refrain is the geographical presumption that the West is the default starting point for regional positioning. Whether called the 'Middle East and North Africa' (mena), 'Southwest Asia and North Africa' (swana), 'Near East' or any other term, all regional labels appear inadequate or indefensible. The same applies to the Arabic regional formations of al-Mashriq, al-Maghreb and al-Khaleej. Every demarcation creates its own containment and presumed centricity.
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El-Hibri et al. (2023) studied this question.
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