Middle East as “shatterbelt”
“a large, strategically located region
that is occupied by a number of
conflicting states and is caught
between the conflicting interests of
adjoining great powers.”
Saul Cohen, 1964
Modernizing States – Middle East
Questions:
Why aren’t more countries in the Middle East democratic?
Can Middle Eastern countries modernize without becoming Western?
Does economic liberalization lead to political liberalization?
What factors encourage change in the Middle East today?
What factors impede change in the Middle East today?
Impact of WWI on the Middle East
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THE single most important political
event in the history of the Modern
Middle East
per capita losses in Ottoman Empire
and Persia greater than in Europe
(25%)
creation of the modern state system
ideological glue binding these states
was nationalism
political transformation in Palestine
The Middle East and the West
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End of the Ottoman Empire
of Turkey
Republic
After WWI: mandate system in Gulf
States:
• Britain  Palestine, Iraq, Transjordan
• France  Syria, Lebanon
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“Independent” by end of WWII but
Western oil interests remained
Cold War and competition for oil meant
Middle East remained an area of Western
intervention and influence
Interwar Period
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pro-Nazi sympathies – Iran
Egypt – “independence by degrees.”
Muslim Brotherhood founded – 1928
non-Muslims continued to control
many areas in the ME.
oil discoveries lead to ARAMCO and
other concessions.
anti-imperialism and tension in ArabIsraeli dispute and in India/Pakistan
World War II and its Impact
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Axis search for oil – Battle of el
Alamein, 1942.
British White Paper – “Palestine off
limits to Jews.”
Intensification of Arab-Israeli Conflict.
Modernizing, “developmental ethos.”
Revolts and Reforms
Independence
Modernizing Ideologies
“Muslims did not march in single file”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Bourgeois Liberalism/Capitalism – secular,
individualistic, democratic, market forces (Liberal
modernization theory).
Marxism – state control, command economy, secular.
Islamism – traditional religious values,
fundamentalism, conservative
Arab Socialism-secular, anti-colonial, pan-Arab,
cultural expression of identity?
Nationalism – secular, ethnicity or loyalty to the
state
Which has your country attempted?
http://www.mideastweb.org/maps.htm
“Greater Middle East”
Egypt-Nasser, Sadat, Mubarak –
Arab Socialism and Pan-Arabism
Iraq - Hussein-Baathist Socialism
Syria – Asad – Baathist Socialism
Libya – Qadafi – Green Socialism
Turkey - Secular Republic
Iran – Shah, Khomeini,
Ahmadinejad –Islamism
Saudi Arabia – “Family w/
Flags”, Wahabi Islam
http://www.mideastweb.org/maps.htm
Four Critical 20th c. Issues
“There was no 20th c. in the Middle East”
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Domestic – social frustration, “defensive
developmentalism,” oil is a curse
Foreign Policy – constant intervention,
how to control their own destiny
Political Instability – questions of
legitimacy, “top-down rather than
bottom-up governments,” patron-client
state
Ideological confusion – cultural and
moral debates
Traditional Identities
1. Birth Identities:
Blood = family, clan, tribe
Place = neighborhood, village, district,
province, country.
Religion = may be the only one that
transcends the others
2. Allegiance to a ruler – hereditary
monarch
What is a tribe?
(“horde” in Central Asia)
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be aware of Eurocentric bias—more
“primitive” type of social unit.
“family resemblances”—shared
customs, cultures, ideas—practical
guide to social actions such as
marriage, landholding, rights within
the group.
administrative units
Tribalism
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“is not a single phenomenon rather,
it is a persistent social and political
force bringing together people for
many different purposes.”
• from Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East
“I against my brother; I and my brother
against my cousin; I an my brother and my
cousin against the stranger”
from an old Arab proverb
Nationalism and Islamism
Common Elements
Both emerged because of similar
historical conditions(imperialism)
“While the strengthening of the one
has led to the strengthening of the
other, the failure of one has led to a
surge in popularity of the other.”
James Gelvin
The Modern Middle East
Both address similar concerns:
 -creating unity,
Westernization
- economic dependency political and
cultural
 Both draw
-political subjugation
legitimacy from
same assumptions:
-corruption
-adapted to the
state system
-returning to “the
-cultural
essence”
authenticity
-dignity
Zones of Islam
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Arab – Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,
Libya, Kuwait, Yemen, Saudi Arabia,
Gulf States
Turkish - Turkey
Persian - Iran
South Asia – Pakistan and India
Southeast Asian – Indonesia,
Malaysia, Philippines
African - Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan,
Algeria, Nigeria
Disapora
Islam in politics
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Relaxed model – use Islam to
legitimize the actual lived
experiences today, “live and let live.”
Reform model – use Islam to
reform society, or co-opt Islam to
serve rulers’ purpose.
Revolutionary model – seek mass
mobilization to bring back the age of
purity and the creation of a new
society.
Political Islam-Fundamentalism
“shadow side of modernity” – develops when modernization is
well-established, so a reaction against it because:
deep disappointment with modernity
fear of secularism, liberalism and its values
pushing religion from the sidelines back to the center
begins as an internal dispute within own culture/country

Ex. opposing westernizing leaders or policies
return to a “golden age” – overstressing traditional values
Ex. putting women back into veils a reactive form of
modernism, often innovative and radical tactics:

withdrawal from society
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forming separate communities
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fighting for survival
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revival of faith
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terrorism (minority)
Egypt
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See ME, pp. 281-293
Egypt
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overcome tribalism and create a new
identity – Arab nationalism
reverse effects of imperialism – antiimperialism
Arab socialism – Nasser, Arab League
1950’s Suez Crisis
Muslim Brotherhood, Said Qutb
Sadat – opening (intifah) to the West
Mubarak – “dictatorship w/ a Western
face”
Iraq

1918-32 British rule
• Even after
independence Britain
retained oil rights
and kept military
bases in Iraq

Monarchy military
rule Ba’thists

1979 Saddam Hussein
took power
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Saddam suppressed
opposition also Kurdish
minority
Iraq
Iraq
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Mandate policy
• “on paper, a good idea”
• Mosul in the North,oil rich (Sunni Kurds)
• Tigris/Euphrates/Baghdad, farmland
(Shi’a and Sunni)
• Basra in the South, oil potential, access
to Persian Gulf
• Sunni Faysal, from Hussein in Mecca, to
rule, with British “support” over Shi’ite
majority.
• Frequent resistance
Iraq Continued:
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after WWII, conflict and removal of
monarch, Faysal.
British pursue “divide and rule”
policy.
Hussein and Ba’athist Socialism
• secular
• nationalistic
• Iraq’s Bismarck? (invasion of Kuwait)
Saudi Arabia
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conservative Sunni Islam,
Wahhabism
“family with flags” Ibn Saud, Ikhwan
large royal family
rentier state due to oil
welfare state
Turkey
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See pp. 125-132
Turkey
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Six Arrows
• republicanism – Ataturk
• nationalism – Turkification
• populism – social and educational
changes
• statism – strong military, central
bureaucracy
• secularism – no veil, co-opt clerics
• reformism – Western alphabet, customs
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“Frontier Islam” – pro-European
Iran
Iran
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1940s: Britain and USSR
invaded to protect supply
routes
1951: Mohammad
Mossadeq, proponent of
nationalizing oil, appointed
Prime Minister
1953: Mossadeq
overthrown by US and UK
intelligence; installation of
pro-Western Shah
1953-79: Iran closely
allied with the U.S.
Iran was highly
secularized and
Westernized
Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi
Iranian Revolution 1979
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Revolution to
overthrow the regime
of the Shah
Also a cultural
revolution for
“revolutionary Islam”
1979: Ayatollah
Khomeini established
Republic of Iran
2002 labeled by Pres.
Bush part of “axis of
1979-81: 55 Americans were held hostage
Iran now
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Final victor in IranIraq war?
Nuclear ambitions?
Broker of regional
peace?
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Upset or balance
power vis á vis
Israel?
Iran
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Westernization – Pahlavi, Shah of
Iran (White Revolution – 1960’s)
Nationalism – Mossadiq in 1950’s
Khomeini – Islamic Theocracy
Iran a petrostate?
Iran a nuclear state? Regional
power?
Why Turkey “succeeded” and
Iran “failed”. . .
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greater resistance to development in
Iran than in Turkey b/c Turkey started
earlier, so not so strange.
Kemal created government and state at
same time; Reza Shah created
government in already self-governing
state.
Kemal created state during war of
national liberation; Pahlavi seized
power in a coup.
Pakistan
See pp. 135-138,
Pakistan
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Western Liberalism – Jinnah, founder
of Pakistan, 1947
Bhutto – Zia – power of the military
Islamic resurgence - madrasas
Tribalism
Musharraf/Bhutto – patron-client
state
“What makes 1998 quite different
from 1898, and radically different
from 1798, is the sense among
Muslims that people in Malaysia
are directly, immediately, and
powerfully affected by what is
happening in Sudan or Algeria or
Pakistan.” (Humphreys, 146)
“For it is often the way we look at other
people that imprisons them within their
own narrowest allegiances. And it is also
the way we look at them that may set
them free”
(Malouf, In the Name of Identity)
What determines your identity?
http://www.occamsrazor.info/images/middle_east.jpg