Regional Architecture and Strategic Competition “Hollow Sovereignty”: Changes in the Status of the Arab Nation States One Decade after the Upheaval Carmit Valensi and Kobi Michael “The time of absolute and exclusive sovereignty…has passed; its theory was never matched by reality.” Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 1992 Weighty processes took place during the Arab Spring that inter alia affected the status of the nation states in the Middle East and undermined their sovereignty. From the perspective of the ensuing decade, it appears that territorial borders and state frameworks were preserved, and sovereignty was therefore ostensibly maintained. This article proposes a more complex analysis of the term “sovereignty,” and presents the various ways in which sovereignty was manifested among countries in the region in 2010-2020. We propose reconsideration of the term with respect to what appears in the theoretical discourse of political science and international relations, in an attempt to examine the connections between the changes in the nature of sovereignty and the phenomenon of the failed state. We urge the adoption of typology refecting the various levels and types of state sovereignty. Finally, we assess how an analysis of the region from the perspective The Middle East. Photo: Shutterstock