-Week 5-
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Timeline of Modern Middle East – 1
• 1914: Ottoman Empire enters WWI.
• 1917:
Balfour
Declaration
on
Palestine
• 1921: Reza Khan stages coup in
Persia.
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Author/s: Book title, edition number – edit on master slide
Timeline of Modern Middle East – 2
• 1923: Republic of Turkey is established
• 1925: Reza Khan proclaims himself Shah.
Founds Pahlavi dynasty in Iran.
• 1932: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is established
• 1945 -46 : Autonomist movements in Iran
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Timeline of Modern Middle East – 3
• 1947: Truman Doctrine
• 1948: Proclamation of the state of Israel.
(750,000 Palestinian Refugess Created )
• 1948 : First Arab-Israeli War.
• 1951-53: Iranian Oil nationalization crisis and
overthrow of Iranian Mussadiq regime ,
masterminded by CIA
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Author/s: Book title, edition number – edit on master slide
Timeline of Modern Middle East – 4
• 1952: Egyptian Revolution
• 1953: Proclamation of the Egyptian Republic.
• 1954-55: Egypt and Syria purchase arms
from the USSR via Czechoslovakia
• 1956: Eqyptian leader Nasser nationalizes
the Suez Canal prompting a regional crisis.
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Timeline of Modern Middle East – 3
• 1958: Monarchy in Iraq is overthrown.
• 1963:Overthrow of Iraqi Qasim regime,
allegedly masterminded by CIA
• 1967: Six-Day Arab-Israeli War: Israel
gains control of Gaza, Golan Heights,
West Bank , Sinai Peninsula
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Author/s: Book title, edition number – edit on master slide
Timeline of Modern Middle East – 4
• 1968: Nominally pro-Soviet Ba'ath Party coup in
Iraq.
• 1973: The Yom Kippur War (October War)
between Israel, Egypt, and Syria
• 1974: PLO (nominally supported by the SU)
recognized as the sole legitimate representative of
Palestinians
• 1975-1989: Lebanese civil war
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Timeline of Modern Middle East – 5
• 1978: Camp David Accords: treaty between
Egypt and Israel
• 1979 : Islamic Revolution in Iran; Fall of the
Shah; installation of the Iranian Revolution
• 1980-1988: Iran-Iraq War.
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Donald Rumsfeld -Reagan's Envoy- provided Iraq with
chemical & biological weapons ( October,1983)
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Timeline of Modern Middle East – 6
• 1981: Assanitation of President Sadat. Smooth
sucession by Mubarak in Eqypt.
• 1988: First intifada begins.
• 1989 : Taif Agreement ending of the civil war in
Lebanon.
•
1990-1991: The Gulf War.
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Political/economic characteristics of
Middle East (with or without) Cold War
1) The presence and development of oil in
much of ME and the rest of the worlds
demand.
2) Complex local issues such as Palestine
conflict.
3) Arab nationalism and political islam.
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Origins
• Cold War had deep effects on the Middle
East, though the extent of this impact is
disputed.
• Struggle
between
US
and
USSR
over
influence in the Middle East after WW II.
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Effects of CW on the Middle East
1) Polarized political life.
2) Encouraged the rise of military or
military backed regimes
3) Prevent the growth of indigeneous
political institutions.
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Great Powers’ main areas of concern
1) Strategic advantage
2) Oil reserves
3) Ideological conflict
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1) Strategic Advantage
• Conflicts in Greece , Turkey and Iran as early
manifestations of Cold War’s impact in the
Middle East
• Truman Doctrine (1947) , Baghdad Pact
(1955)
,
Eisenhower
CENTO (1959)
• Suez Crisis (1956)
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Doctrine
(1957)
,
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Strategic Advantage - Greece
• After the evacuation of German forces from
Greece in 1944, there were two groups in that
country that wanted to take power: the
monarchists and the Communists.
• In 1946 communists - received moral support
from the USSR and actual material support
from Yugoslavia - attempted a takeover.
• Greece was in a highly sensitive position
militarily and Truman wanted to give the
monarchists as much support as he could
during the Civil War.
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Strategic Advantage -Turkey
• The USSR’s Black Sea Fleet was bottled up
in the Black Sea. It had to use the narrow
waterway through Turkey – the Dardanelles –
to get into the Mediterranean Sea.
• Dissatisfied with the Turkish straits regime, in
June 1945, Moscow called for joint SovietTurkish defense of the straits and the
installation of Soviet bases.
• These demands were coupled with territorial
claims over the eastern Turkish provinces.
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Truman Doctrine (March 1947)
• Faced with an armed leftist movement with
external support coupled with prospects of British
withdrawal and parallel develepments in Turkey,
the US announced the Truman Doctrine.
• Promising to send $400 million in military and
economic aid to support Greece and Turkey.
• The Doctrine was to set the tone for US foreign
policy throughout the world post-March 1947.
• In 1952, they became NATO members with a clear
message to Moscow that an attack on either would
be deemed by others to be an attack on all of
them.
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The Eisenhower Doctrine (1957)
Authorizing the commitment of U.S. forces "to
secure and protect the territorial integrity and
political independence of such nations, requesting
such aid against overt armed aggression from any
nation controlled by international communism."
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Strategic Advantage – Iran (Azeris and Kurds )
• In August 1941, after the German invasion of
Russia and Reza Shah’s pro-German leanings,
British ( south ) and Soviet forces (north) occupied
Iran.
• Following the end of WWII, most Azeris and Kurds
(in north) decided that autonomy within Iran, with
Soviet support was both praticanle and desirable.
• Accordingly, a Kurdish autonomous republic and an
Azeri autnomous government were declared, which
looked threatening from London, Washington ,and
Tehran.
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Strategic Advantage – Iran (Kurds and
Azeris)
• These fears intensified when the SU declined to set a
date for the withdrawal of its troops from the country in
contravention of the Tripartite Treaty of Alliance
(1942).
• The SU certainly sought an oil concession in the areas
around the Caspian and a friedly local government in
along with a share of Anglo-Iranian oil company (BP
later).
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Suez Crisis (1956)
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Suez Crisis (1956)
• The Middle East was a key area within the
Cold War context and the Suez Canal was
seen as vital.
• By 1951 the British had 80,000 troops
stationed along the Suez Canal making it the
largest military base in the world.
• To many in Britain the Suez Canal was a sign
of Britain’s overseas power – to many
Egyptians it was an emblem of an empire and
should have gone when WWII ended.
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Suez Crisis (1956)
• As the last British troops left Egypt, Nasser
was completing the purchase of Soviet-made
aircraft, tanks and arms.
• On 19 July, the US informed not to provide
funding for the construction of the dam.
• On 26 July 1956, Nasser nationalised the
Anglo-French Suez Canal Company.
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Suez Crisis (1956)
• Politically, the intervention in Suez was a
disaster. World opinion, especially that of the
US, together with the threat of Soviet
intervention, forced Britain, France and Israel
to withdraw their troops from Egypt.
• Nasser emerged as “Suez Hero” afterwards
and headed pan-Arabism in the Middle East.
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2) Oil in the Middle East
• Role of production from Arab countries and
Iran in meeting Western oil demands.
• Nationalisation efforts: from rallying cry to
damp squib?
• For all the discussion of oil as a “vital
interest”, it never functioned as a contentious
issue between the superpowers.
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3) Clash of Ideologies – 1
• Communist and leftists movements in the Middle
East: from early freedom to later repression.
• Ideology plays important role in US/USSR rivalry:
- US policy initially ambiguous.
- American vision of modernity vs Soviet
alternative of egalitarianism and benevolent
state.
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3) Clash of Ideologies – 2
• Role of ideology changes over the course of
the Cold War.
• Superpower relations with Middle Eastern
states complex, not simply imperialist or neoimperialist.
• Patron/Client relations: but clients can switch
patrons, or have multiple patrons  playing
superpowers off each other, eg. Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Iraq,Iran.
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Cold War’s Internal Impact
• How would politics have developed without
the Cold War?
• Secular opposition driven underground:
- Dictatorial regimes maintained.
- Rise of the religious right.
• Polarization of political life distorted growth of
indigenous political institutions.
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Thanks
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