Islamic factor in historical and political processes in the middle east: New realities and trends

The article examines the influence of the Islamic factor on various spheres of the Middle East societies, as well as on the process of transformation of the regional relations subsystem. A special attention is focused on the exacerbation of relations within the Islam world, especially between the followers of the two main trends - Sunnis and Shiites, which accompanies the struggle for leadership in the Middle East. It is emphasized that a distinctive feature of the modern situation in the Islamic countries is a high potential for social explosion and a significant level of conflict, which has an extremely negative impact on the ensuring national and regional security. © 2020, Rossiiskaya Akademiya Nauk, Institut Istorii (Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of General Hist. All rights reserved.