Title:  MIDDLE EAST CRISIS AND ITS IMPACTS ON THE ECONOMY 

Abstract：We as human live on a planet with limited resources and bounded territories, which cannot meet our greed nature and thirst of, possess progressively property. Many lives have been lost, many people lost their home, many people left their homeland hoping to find a new home, these dark sides of human nature have been repeated all over the human history.

Even in the 21st century after all our efforts to uniform humans’ rights, we still witness of outnumbering people and nations tyrannized by other group or nations.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is within turmoil. Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen have been in civil war, causing the untold destruction of human lives and physical infrastructure. Fifteen million humans have fled their homes, many to fragile or economically strapped countries like Jordan, Lebanon, Djibouti, and Tunisia, giving rise to the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. The existing turmoil in Yemen has set that country's development back several years. Blockades and repeated cycles of violence are making Gaza's unemployment rate the largest in the world.

This paper reviews economic downturn and the cost of conflict. Estimating the economic costs of conflict takes a counterfactual calculation that makes this an exceptionally difficult task. The method employed in each case is dependent upon the units being analyzed (firms, sectors, regions or countries), and data availability (a single cross section, time series or panel data).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Page

I. INTRODUCTION 1

1.1. PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTION 2

1.2. DISPOSITION 3

II. THEORY, METHODS, AND EXPLANATIONS 4

2.1. How to Define Armed Conflict 4

2.2. Theoretical Framework – Conflict Economics 4

2.3. Why Costs of Conflicts Should be Calculated 5

2.4. General Overview 7

2.4.1. Armed Conflict Trends in the World 7

2.4.2. Armed Conflict Trends in the MENA region 8

III. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 11

IV. FINDINGS 13

4. How Conflict Affects the MENA Region Differently 13

4.1. Summary of Results for MDG Goals for MENA and the World 13

4.2. Development Consequences of Conflict 15

4.2.1. Studying the Consequences of Conflict 16

4.3. Macroeconomic Impact of Conflicts 17

4.3.1 Refugee Crisis and Host Countries 20

4.3.1.1 Impact on Host Societies 20

4.3.2. Destruction of Physical Capital and Infrastructure 20

4.4.