113 © The Author(s) 2019 S. Giusti, I. Mirkina (eds.), The EU in a Trans-European Space, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03679-9_6 Saudi Arabia’s Regional Space-Shaping: Making or Unmaking a Region? Irene Costantini and Ruth Hanau Santini INTRODUCTION The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been object of several attempts at region-building over the past century. Region-building has been used to signify ‘the ideas, dynamics, and means that contribute to changing a geographical area into a politically constructed community’ (Hettne 2005: 545). Neumann has, in particular, emphasised the socially constructed nature of regions, born through discourse both ‘from outside and inside’ (Neumann 2003: 164). In its historical and contemporary evo- lution, the MENA testifes to competitive region-building efforts by out- side and inside forces, resting on different ideas, dynamics and legitimising strategies. In analysing region-building attempts in the MENA, after an initial genealogy of the label ‘Middle East’ as the frst attempt by the US to cre- ate a region, the chapter focuses on recent efforts by Saudi Arabia to mould the region through the security prism and its threat perceptions. As the custodian of Islam holiest places, Mecca and Medina, in the past fve decades, Saudi Arabia has played a fundamental role in the region aided by its oil-derived fnancial largeness. In recent years, the Kingdom has adapted I. Costantini • R. Hanau Santini (*) University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’, Naples, Italy e-mail: rhanausantini@unior.it