Abstract

On September 15, 2020, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed what has become known as the Abraham Accords. It also called for the promotion of peace and cooperation in the region by acknowledging that Jews, Christians, and Muslims all shared the common patriarch, Abraham. What followed was a series of normalization agreements between Israel and the other two nations. Later, in December 2020, Morocco joined the Abraham Accords and also agreed to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. Through the lens of world-system and using the Abraham Accords as a case study, this article explores how regionalization remains vital for the development of semiperipheral nations seeking to close the gap with the core. It also fills in gaps in the literature due to regionalization often being overlooked by sociologists and those in other areas of study. This research also goes beyond the typical world-system research about unequal exchanges, while simultaneously challenging globalization theorists about decentralization and the decline of nation-state autonomy. While the Abraham Accords are still far from a regional economic bloc, this article argues that they are still likely to hold despite the war that has erupted between Israel and Hamas. Overall, the importance of regionalization within the world-system for semiperiphery nations will be shown through the economic benefits and long-term potential of the Abraham Accords.