The southern transitional councils continued push toward restoring an independent state will undercut both saudiled peace efforts and u. This original volume illustrates that it is ultimately more fruitful to consider the effects of this. Edward burke is associate fellow at fride and phd candidate at university of st. Avoiding miscalculation and preparing for conflict a saban center at brooking su nited states centr al command conference 1 a letter from tamara cofman. As the cold war split the middle east along an east west line, oil was emerging as the most significant global energy resource, and the local economies gradually became dependent on oil rent. In four years, the region has transitioned from the great hopes for democratisation emanating from the 2011 wave of popular revolutions towards a spiral of fragmentation, insecurity and fragility. The middle east 1 has for long been viewed as a region that best fits the realist view of international politics.
A perspective on the evolving geopolitics in the middle east 110 margalla papers 2015 potential to have spill over effect on the neighbouring region. The rivalry between russia and turkey and between turkey and iran dates as far back as the sixteenth century. Middle east and the permeability of regional sta tes to transstate iden tity discourses. Jan 31, 2012 because the middle east is something sort of made up and its a region that has really come to life in the last century. Successful in the middle east means learning from history. The possible creation of a new geopolitical reality in the middle east may have snuck under the radar this holiday weekend. Overview world war i in the middle east the middle east played a major role in world war i, and, conversely, the war was important in shaping the development of the modern middle east. Geopolitics and democracy in the middle east 7 benedetta berti is kreitman fellow at ben gurion university and fellow at the institute for national security studies. Thearab uprisings and the geopolitics of the middle east bassel f. One of the things that i wish to empart is to get away from the notion that this is a region that has in tractable historic conflicts.
Iran and the arabs will always be neighbours, but we can change and reshape history and politics. Geopolitics and democracy in the middle east 11 the middle east and north africa mena is undergoing a profound geopolitical recon. The geopolitics of the middle east crisis the war in the middle east has revived important and enduring issues. Geopolitics is the intersection of geography, power, and foreign policy, and it. Robert fisk most widely respected middle east journalist alive today gives a talk on the realities of iraq and the wider middle east conflicts. As such, the region has been an intersection for people, trade and ideas as well as numerous progressive developments and destructive conflicts. At the same time, due to new technological advancements. The new geopolitics in the middle east 2 the new geopolitics in the middle east an opportunity for stability in the region menas oil exports are changing course from west to east figure 1. Kerry brown is professor at the university of sydney and associate fellow at chatham house. Middle east and north africa geopolitics, analysis and news. Policy congressional research service summary the political change and unrest that have swept through the middle east and north africa since early 2011 are likely to have profound consequences for the pursuit of longstanding u. Geopolitical futures is a company that charts the course of the international system. Apr 03, 2018 but if we analyze the middle east on the basis of western outlook our total effort to understand the middle east may become fruitless. Geopolitics and the making and unmaking of the middle east physical features and topography.
A third wave of geopolitics has been making its way into middle east political geography since the end of the cold war. In the case of the middle east, i would argue that the united states lacks the forces or even a conceivable strategy to crush either the sunni rising or iran. The middle east region as defined in this article includes the arab countries, iran and turkey. Second, it will consider the factors that led to the birth of the socalled broader middle east initiative as a case that reveals a new geopolitical imagination in american. Geopolitics of the middle east linkedin slideshare. Fishers book of the same name published in 1978, anderson provides a comprehensive account of the physical geography which has been so instrumental to the makeup of the geopolitics of the region. Middle east, muslim middle east, regional security, security community. War, geopolitics and history conflict in the middle east a. However, in 1978 edward said published a book entitled orientalism aimed to challenge, criticize and shake the foundations and assumptions at the heart of the westernbased academic study of the middle east.
Sunnis in the middle east look at what is happening especially in mosul in iraq, and aleppo and raqqa in syria as a. Middle east is a lively and muchneeded update of a wellrespected work. The middle east crisis highlights the conflicting interests of these powers in the area. In 2004, jordans king abdullah ii used the term crescent to warn against the expansion of iranian influence in the middle east. The second wave followed world war ii, when the european colonial order crumbled. Is there a middle east the evolution of a geopolitical. This is the point where someone inevitably will say that the u.
Middle eastern cities nevertheless experienced a decline in size, number, and importance beginning in the sixteenth century and would not regain their preeminence until some four centuries later. Pressing middle east geopolitical issues for the incoming administration january 25, 2017 by kamran bokhari in the past six years, much ink has been spilled in efforts to make sense of the commotion triggered by the arab spring. Pressing middle east geopolitical issues for the incoming. The narrator makes it sound like underlying all the crises and conflicts in the middle east since the beginning of the 20th century is the saudi arabia iran rivalry. Access study documents, get answers to your study questions, and connect with real tutors for pols 220. Such overuse ignores the fact that geopolitics as a method of. Significantly, the resourcerich and historic middle east has also been a territory very attractive to outside powers, including europeans, russians, and americans. Mar 30, 2015 the fertile middle east territory was where the ancient urban civilizations developed, making the region a crossroads of europe, africa and asia for many centuries. The institute for structural reforms january 20 the new geopolitics in the middle east 2 the new geopolitics in the middle east an opportunity for stability in the region menas oil exports are changing course from west to east figure 1. Is the idea of the middle east simply a geopolitical construct conceived by the west to serve particular strategic and economic interestsor can we identify geographical, historical, cultural, and political patterns to indicate some sort of internal coherence to this label. A brief history of the imbalance of power in the middle east.
The most significant regional development was the formation of the state of israel and the resulting first major arabisraeli war. Arab spring and the contemporary geopolitics of the middle. Throughout the recorded history, the middle east has been playing a vital role in the global geopolitics. Joshua krasna, a senior fellow in the foreign policy research institutes program on the middle east, is an analyst specializing in middle east political and regional developments and forecasting, as well as in international strategic issues. Since oil prices started a plunge around the emergence of the isis as a new threat in syria and iraq, however, geopolitical factors have apparently lost. Geopolitics of the middle east and north africa, 19512011 graduate international affairs gpia, the new school university, new york city, fall 2011. Iran as it perceives nuclear weapons in iranian hands as a serious threat to its oil and strategic interests in the middle. The middle east shall remain vitally important because of its geography that straddles important global supply routes, its energy resources, and its complex mix of politics, ethnicity and religion that contributes to instability within and outside the region. The contemporary middle east is the product of these three geopolitical waves. The significant geographic characteristics supplemented by an enormous oil reserve has turned the region as one the most highlighted. Recent middle east developments, including the reemergence of russia and neoottoman turkey, the rise of isis, deepening shiasunni sectarianism, irans new assertiveness, and various crises of internal governance, as epitomized by the collapse of syria and its effects on europe, have only exacerbated this state of confusion in u. Iran is a country of about 80 million defended to the west by rugged mountains and to the east by harsh deserts. He is regarded by many as the most powerful operative in the middle east, both hated and admired by western spies.
That is why the effort will be continued in the third volume of this trilogy, this last one concentrating on the economic aspects of the middle east, and its economic impact on the worlds of today and tomorrow. Geopolitics, analysis of the geographic influences on power relationships in international relations. The norwegian institute for defence studies has agreed to re issue this essay, which was first published in the series distinguished speakers in political geography by the royal military college of canada in march 2001 as, geopolitics and the new middle east isbn 1896354262. Eugene rogan, st antonys college, oxford, author of the arabs the term the middle east has evoked anxieties and questions for over a century. Major issues iraq has been a broken country since the us invaded it in 2003 and then occupied it for 8 years during which it dismantled wholesale saddams army, the state apparatus and the baathist party leaving the sunnis, the tradi. Most arid region of the world the middle east is not part of arab culture, but rather western culture any area of space. Pessimists and optimists alike tend to assume that water has, or soon will have, profound geopolitical implications. One might even say that world war i began and ended with middle. Power shifts and geopolitics in the middle east volker perthes since early 2011, when two longstanding arab rulers were toppled through popular uprisings, the arab world and the middle east have entered into what seems. Geopower and geopolitics in, of, and for the middle east. To most contemporary observers of international politics, the term raises at least a whiff of realpolitik. Geopolitical inventions and practices of security pinar bilgin, bilkent university abstract contesting those approaches that present the middle east as a region that best fits the realist view of international politics, this article submits that critical approaches are. The common interest must therefore lie in ending the period of conflict and moving towards cooperation and regional security.
Trita parsi, a middle east foreign policy expert with extensive capitol hill and united nations experience, interviewed 70 highranking officials from the u. Salloukh the contest between saudi arabia and iran played out in lebanon, the west bank and gaza strip, postwar iraq and, to a lesser extent, yemen and bahrain, has shaped the geopolitics of the region since the 2003 us invasion and occupation of iraq. Since that statement was written, the middle east has indeed seen a huge proliferation of proxy wars, stemming from various nonstate actors. Us strategies in the middle east geopolitical futures. Middle eastern notes and anticipations as befits a word constructed from two parts, geopolitics is a locution with more than one meaning. The geopolitics of history geopolitics is a muchoverused term. There is simply no possibility whatsoever of the myriad hundreds of rebel. Writers, observers, and practitioners of international politics frequently invoke the term to describe, explain, or analyze specific foreign policy issues and problems.
Since the early nineteenth century, european powers have competed to colonise the middle east s territories in an attempt to control its natural resource and geostrategic location. The common interest must therefore lie in ending the period of conflict and moving towards co. With the onset of new era in political history since 2001, stakes of major powers in the region and consequent transition of institutional structures, middle east has. Palestinian territories, qatar, saudi arabia, syria, turkey, the united arab. Thearab uprisings and the geopolitics of the middle east. Ottomans and colonialists the first wave of middle east geopolitics was triggered a century ago with the defeat of the ottoman empire, the last islamic global power, in world war i by euro pean powers including britain, france and italy. Feb 08, 2017 in the case of the middle east, i would argue that the united states lacks the forces or even a conceivable strategy to crush either the sunni rising or iran. This should relate together security and development. This is an excerpt from regional security in the middle east. Couple that with an understanding of geopolitics, and youve got the recipe for an. The european union, meanwhile, remains divided between the positions of paris and berlin colin gray, one of the most important strategic thinkers of the 19 th century, wrote that geopolitics deals with the important and enduring, as opposed to the. For most of its modern history, the middle east has been besieged by international conflicts.
The continuing spectacle of the investigations into russias possible involvement in the 2016 election and the continued naming and shaming of corporate leaders and politicians involved in sexual harassment. Oil has been the dominant export of many middle eastern countries in the last century, and is largely the catalyst behind the global competition for economic control of the region airborneshodanflickr creative commons, 1991. The excia guest then contradicts the narrator by correctly saying that the tensions started when the shah was deposed in 1979. The opinions and findings expressed in this essay are those of the author. Middle east, intimidation when it is needed, and murder as a last resort. In its modern definition, it includes the states of bahrain, egypt, iran, israel, jordan. Geopolitics of the middle east and north africa, 19512011 graduate international affairs gpia, the new school university, new york city, fall 2011 class 8. To bolster what remains of its legitimacy, president erdogans party will likely double down on nationalist and protectionist policies, even if such efforts create more problems down the road. New geopolitics of the middle east american iranian council. The shia crescent and middle east geopolitics foreign.
While the term has achieved common usage, no one studying the region has yet addressed whether this conceptualization. Aug 17, 2017 a brief history of the imbalance of power in the middle east. The geopolitics of the middle east come down to two nations iran and turkey, their battle to gain domination over the other within the northern corridor of iraq, syria and lebanon. This article was originally published by the foreign policy research institute fpri on 27 november 2017. Johnsonkaplan 66 west 12th room 615 aug 30, 2011 dec, 2011 lecture instructor thomas w. This is where we seeing the lebanonisation of iraq, syria and lebanon in one form or another. Geography, resources and the geopolitics of middle east. The word geopolitics was originally coined by the swedish political scientist rudolf kjellen about the turn of the 20th century, and its use spread throughout europe in the period between world wars i and ii 191839 and came into worldwide use during the latter. Amid dramatic changes in to the power structures of the middle east, brookings experts discuss how the united states can adapt its approach to the new geopolitics of the region. Greater middle east in american foreign policy 23 this region. Its an ambitious mission, maybe even foolhardy, but hear us out. Due to its geocultural characteristics, the middle east includes countries from both north africa these countries bordering the mediterranean sea have been also defined as. You cant change regional geography, notes the political analyst khaled hroub. Geopower and geopolitics in, of, and for the middle east article in international journal of middle east studies 492.
This was later picked up by then egyptian president hosni mubarak who said, in an interview with alarabiya, that shias in iraq and across the middle east are more loyal to iran not to the countries they are living in. The new geopolitics of the middle east this series analyzes the major dynamics at play in the middle east and and offer ideas and strategies to guide critical countries and key leaders on how they. Power shifts and geopolitics in the middle east volker perthes since early 2011, when two longstanding arab rulers were toppled through popular uprisings, the arab world and the middle east have entered into what seems to be at least one and more likely two decades of turbulence. In this respect, it will analyse the ideo logy, geopolitical codes and vision that led to a redrawing of the map of the middle east under the bush and obama administrations.
One might even say that world war i began and ended with middle eastrelated conflicts. To discuss this, the article will first introduce the theoretical background and analytical tools. The first wave began with the collapse of the ottoman empire after world war i. India and the middle east crises rising priority the west is attaching to confronting daesh, barring fortuitous assassination, assad will be more strongly entrenched as president at the end of 2016 than he is today. Koichiro tanaka geopolitical events have so far shaken the world economy beyond spatial and temporal domains, as have those in the middle east. That same quality of the middle east is also at the heart of making the region home to worlds three major religions and a harbinger of many scientific discoveries. Geopolitics in the middle east end the arabiranian tugofwar. Among the consequences is the rise of the extremist group known as the islamic state in iraq and syria isis. Geopolitics of the middle east by jamie allinson on prezi. What then has stymied the middle easts economic development. He travels extensively and was last reported in baghdad after the islamic state of iraq and syria.