Mena

Mena

The Middle East and North Africa is a geographic region whose countries are often referred to by the acronym MENA. As a regional identifier, MENA is often used in academia, military planning, disaster relief, media planning (as a broadcast region), and business writing. Moreover, the region shares a number of cultural, economic, and environmental similarities across its comprising countries; for example, some of the most extreme impacts of climate change will be felt in MENA. Some terms have a wider definition than MENA, such as MENASA, MENAP, or Greater Middle East, which extends to the countries in the regions of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) and the Caucasus, such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. And sometimes a tiny portion of the South Caucasus, such as Dagestan, can also be included. The term "MENAP" includes South Asia (Afghanistan, Maldives, and Pakistan), which has had significant Islamic influence and widely uses the Arabic script. The term MENAT explicitly includes Turkey, which is usually excluded from some MENA definitions, even though Turkey is almost always considered part of the Middle East.

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