Middle East and North Africa
A geographic region with no standardized definition, used across multiple fields.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), sometimes called West Asia and North Africa (WANA) or South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA), is a geographic grouping that combines the Middle East (or West Asia) with North Africa. It serves as an alternative to the broader concept of the Greater Middle East, which covers much of the Muslim world. There is no single, agreed-upon definition of the region, and the list of countries included can shift depending on the source, but it generally features nations such as Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The term "MENA" is commonly used in fields like academia, military planning, disaster relief, media broadcasting, and business writing. The countries within this region share certain cultural, economic, and environmental traits; for instance, MENA is expected to experience some of the most severe effects of climate change. Broader terms like MENASA or MENAP exist, and MENAT explicitly adds Turkey, which is often left out of MENA definitions even though Turkey is nearly always considered part of the Middle East itself. Ultimately, MENA can be seen as a way to group most of the Arab League along with various neighboring states, including Iran, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, the Caucasus countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Malta, and a few others. As of July 1, 2025, the World Bank uses the acronym MENAAP (Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan) to formally include Afghanistan and Pakistan in this region.
Quick Facts
- Demonym
- Middle Eastern and North African; West Asian and North African
- Languages
- Arabic
- Persian
- Turkish
- Kurdish
- Hebrew
- Berber
- Coptic
- Azerbaijani
- Georgian
- Armenian
- Time
- UTC+01:00 to UTC+04:00
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The term MENA emerged as a regional identifier used in academia, military planning, disaster relief, media planning, and business writing. It brings together most of the Arab League and variously includes their neighbors, such as Iran, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, the Caucasian countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Malta, and a few others. The region has no standardized definition; different organizations define it as consisting of different territories, or do not define it as a region at all. For example, the United Nations has no MENA region among its Regional Groups or in its geoscheme, though some UN agencies and programmes define the MENA region, but their definitions may contradict each other. Other organizations, such as UNHCR, FAO, UNAIDS, and UNICEF, have published varying lists of MENA countries, sometimes including Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan, or excluding others. Historians Michael Dumper and Bruce Stanley defined the region as stretching from Morocco to Iran and from Turkey to the Horn of Africa, including the 22 countries of the Arab League, Turkey, Israel, Iran, and Cyprus, while noting how controversial and problematic this definition is. Due to the geographic ambiguity and Eurocentric nature of the term 'Middle East', some prefer terms like SWANA, WANA, or NAWA, especially in sciences such as agriculture and climatology, and usage of WANA has been advanced by postcolonial studies.
Reader's Guide
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is significant as a flexible regional grouping that serves multiple practical purposes across academia, policy, business, and humanitarian work. Its lack of a standardized definition reflects the political, cultural, and geographic complexities of the area it attempts to describe. Different organizations—such as the World Bank, UNHCR, FAO, UNAIDS, UNICEF, and the IMF—have each produced their own lists of MENA countries, which sometimes include Iran, Israel, Turkey, Malta, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia, or Mauritania, and sometimes exclude them. This variability means that any use of the term requires careful attention to the specific definition being employed. The region shares cultural, economic, and environmental similarities, including that some of the most extreme impacts of climate change will be felt in MENA. Related terms like MENASA, MENAP, and MENAT extend the grouping further into South Asia or explicitly include Turkey. The term WANA (West Asia and North Africa) is also used, particularly in postcolonial studies and in agricultural research, with ICARDA defining a WANA region of 25 to 27 countries. Ultimately, MENA is a pragmatic but contested construct that highlights the challenges of regional classification in a diverse and geopolitically sensitive area.
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