With the collapse of the Middle East peace process, the 'war on terrorism' and US-led intervention in Iraq, the question of Middle East regionalism(s) has reached a new salience. Will such developments usher in a new wave of transnational politics, as events reverberate through a Middle East made even more permeable by new information technologies and transregional religious networks? Or will authoritarian states successfully insulate themselves from such effects? What impact will globalization have on local identities and local politics? To what extent might issues of regional permeability be mediated by class, gender, ethnicity, population migration, or other factors? The contributors to Persistent Permeability? address such questions from a variety of analytical perspectives. In doing so, they offer a valuable contribution, essential for all those interested in Middle East politics and international relations.

Permeability is the primary control on fluid flow in the Earth’s crust and is key to a surprisingly wide range of geological processes, because it controls the advection of heat and solutes and the generation of anomalous pore pressures. The practical importance of permeability – and the potential for large, dynamic changes in permeability – is highlighted by ongoing issues associated with hydraulic fracturing for hydrocarbon production (“fracking”), enhanced geothermal systems, and geologic carbon sequestration. Although there are thousands of research papers on crustal permeability, this is the first book-length treatment. This book bridges the historical dichotomy between the hydrogeologic perspective of permeability as a static material property and the perspective of other Earth scientists who have long recognized permeability as a dynamic parameter that changes in response to tectonism, fluid production, and geochemical reactions.