The Middle East
Developments in the postwar Middle East were dominated mainly by the following factors: The independence of former colonies and mandates The region s strategic and economic importance as the world s key source of petroleum -Two thirds of the world s crude oil is produced in the Middle East -The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), founded in 1960, is dominated by states from the Middle East
Contradictions existed between the urge to modernize and a desire on the part of many Middle Easterners to preserve Islamic tradition -Islamic fundamentalism has been dominant in countries such as Iran (after 1979) and Afghanistan (after 1989) The destabilizing effect of the Arab- Israeli conflict since 1948 The competition between the United States and the USSR for influence in the region during the Cold War The persistence of dictatorship, authoritarian rule, or human rights abuses, even in countries that are technically democratic
Independence, oil-based wealth, and geostrategic importance made the states of the Middle East more assertive in the 1950s and 1960s The most famous example of this new Arab nationalism appeared in Egypt, which became an independent republic in 1952 By 1954, Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser had taken control of the government A great booster of modernization, Nasser was an equally great proponent of pan- Arabism He labored to create a United Arab Republic that would link all Arab nations together in a cooperative commonwealth
This effort failed, but Nasser was successful in modernizing his country He also stood up to the West, nationalizing foreign-owned or foreign-controlled industries and businesses In 1956, Nasser took the bold step of declaring Egyptian ownership of the Suez Canal The move prompted the Suez crisis, in which French, British, and Israeli troops tried to seize the canal The United States and USSR, however, wishing to avoid a serious armed conflict in the region, forced the British, French, and Israelis to withdraw, leaving the canal in Egyptian hands
The end result was a huge blow to the diplomatic prestige of France and Britain Because Nasser was anti-british, he chose to strengthen ties with the Soviet Union, at least temporarily Soviet advisers and engineers brought technology and weaponry to Egypt; they also constructed the Aswan Dam, the world s largest However, when the Soviets attempted to exert too much control over Egyptian politics, Nasser expelled them
Nasser died in 1970 He was succeeded by Anwar el-sadat, who drew Egypt closer to the United States, and in 1978, became the first Arab leader to recognize the state of Israel Sadat was assassinated by Islamic militants in 1981 Afterwards, Hosni Mubarak served as Egypt s president
Along with freedom and independence, the most dramatic postwar development in the Middle East has been the establishment of the state of Israel as a homeland for the world s Jews Earlier in 1917, the British had issued the Balfour Declaration, in which it publicly had stated the British government s intention to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine whose population, during the late 1910s, was 90 percent Arab Despite the fact that the British allowed only limited Jewish emigration to Palestine, in order to keep from provoking the Arabs, thousands of Jews flooded into the region, many of them illegally
By 1939, the Jewish proportion of the population had risen from 10 to 30 percent After World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust, however, international sympathy for the Jews, along with strong U.S. support, led to the establishment of the state of Israel, in May 1948
It is also important to remember that it was the journalist, Theodore Herzl, who clarified and gave political weight to the concept of Jewish nationalism - or Zionism - and a national home for the Jews in Palestine at the first Zionist Congress at Basle, in Switzerland, in 1897 He won wide Jewish backing for it, and tried, at first unsuccessfully, to encourage the British Government to support it Herzl had witnessed the Dreyfus Affair and believed that Jews could never be safe in a Christian-dominated and anti-semitic Europe A Jewish homeland was needed
In September 1894, an anonymous note to the German military attaché in Paris was found, leaking French army secrets Panic-stricken and spurred on by a virulent anti- Semitic press, the government named the alleged culprit - a brilliant young army captain, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew Dreyfus was innocent It was truly a case of prejudice over facts Herzl witnessed mobs shouting Death to the Jews in France, the home of the French Revolution, and resolved that there was only one solution: the mass immigration of Jews to a land that they could call their own Thus, the Dreyfus Case became one of the determinants in the genesis of political Zionism
The state of Israel was proclaimed by the Jewish leader, David Ben Gurion, on May 14, 1948, and officially came into being on the 15th, after British Mandatory rule ended at midnight
The founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948 stirred up Arab outrage and plunged the Middle East into war The Israelis had to fight a war in 1948 simply to keep the state that had been given them This had the effect of displacing millions of Palestinian Arabs, who scattered to Jordan, Lebanon, and throughout the Middle East In 1964, the Palestinian diaspora gained a semblance of leadership with the formation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a terrorist group and political movement led by Yasser Arafat
The Arab states fought several wars against Israel, most notably the Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973 Each time, Israel, with a supremely trained, highly motivated army and strong backing from the United States, defeated the Arab coalitions decisively, taking much territory away from several Arab states in the process PLO terrorism was frequent, most infamously, a PLO squad assassinated members of the Israeli Olympic team in 1972
Not until 1978, when Anwar al- Sadat of Egypt, encouraged by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to recognize Israel in exchange for the return of the Sinai Peninsula, was there an end to outright war in the region Following Egypt s lead, a number of moderate Arab states began to recognize Israel during the 1980s However, problems remained
Throughout the 1980s, the Palestinian population of Israel staged a continuous uprising called the intifada These demonstrations and protests often led to bloodshed At the same time, various terrorist groups acted against Israel as well This placed Israel in a difficult position: in order to avoid utter social collapse and a total breakdown of security, it despite being a democracy, theoretically committed to human rights roughly felt compelled to use violence against civilian agitators who, although hostile and sometimes dangerous, were poorly armed and often minors
In 1993 and 1994, the Israelis and Palestinians signed historic peace agreements, one of which called for Palestinian self-rule in parts of Israel The United States attempted through the 1990s to mediate between the two sides and to keep the peace process alive Nonetheless, tensions remained high, and the peace effort collapsed in 2001, amid violence from both sides Periodically, since 2001, peace efforts have continued but the issues of land, autonomy, and security have made the peace settlement difficult
As a general rule, Middle Eastern regimes tended to be authoritarian and dictatorial Many Middle Eastern states, such as Morocco, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, were monarchies Strongman dictatorships were also common, as in Syria (under Hafez Assad and his family), Libya (Colonel Muammar Qaddafi), and Iraq (President Saddam Hussein) Even in democracies such as Egypt and Turkey, the perceived need to combat Islamic extremism has led to a certain heaviness of political control: elections are not completely open, civil rights are somewhat constrained, and the media are not entirely free
The most powerful dictatorships in the Middle East were those of Iran and Iraq Since 1920s, Iran had been ruled by the secular, modernizing Pahlavi shahs The last shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ruled from 1941 to 1979 The Shah used Iran s oil wealth to industrialize and modernize Like the Turkish government, the Shah s regime opposed Islamic traditionalism, encouraging Western dress, Western education, the unveiling of women, and the eradication of Islamic law The Shah became an ally of the United States
Unfortunately, the Shah relied on repression to carry out his modernization campaign: dissidents were ruthlessly suppressed by the secret police (SAVAK), and the regime was decidedly antidemocratic By 1979, the Shah was in poor health, and his popularity had plummeted He left the country to seek medical treatment, but died of cancer in 1980 In the meantime, in 1979, the Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, an Islamic fundamentalist the Shah had exiled years before, returned to Iran and took control of the country
This Iranian Revolution transformed the country into an anti-western (particularly anti-u.s.), theocratic dictatorship The new regime held American hostages captive for a number of months in 1979 and 1981 At the same time, Iran went to war with neighboring Iraq The Iran-Iraq War lasted from 1980 to 1988, and devastated both countries Khomeini died in 1989 The theocracy he created remains in place, although periodic protests against it have occurred
In June 2009, the controversial presidential election in Iran provoked what is now known as the "Green Movement The disputed election produced a second term for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad As the controversy raged, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei decreed that the election result was valid Ahmedinejad was thus sworn-in in August However, the election split the Iranian polity deeply There are many Iranians who want greater political freedoms and liberties Yet the theocratic government still rules
Iraq came under the control of Saddam Hussein in 1979 Although his title was president, Hussein was one of the most powerful dictators of the Middle East Originally sponsored by the United States because of his opposition to Iran, Hussein turned his brutality against his own people, his neighbors, and the United States During his war with Iran, he used poison gas, drafted teenaged children to fight in his armies, and killed many civilians He viciously persecuted his nation s Kurdish minority
In 1990, he invaded the oil-rich state of Kuwait and appeared ready to do the same to Saudi Arabia In the first major conflict of the post-cold War era, the United States led a military coalition that pushed Hussein out of Kuwait in the Gulf War (1991) Casualties were estimated to be over 85,000 Beginning in 1991, United Nations trade sanctions were put in place, in an effort to force Hussein to comply with the terms of the 1991 cease-fire agreement, which included the abolishing of chemical and biological weapons programs
Due to Hussein s continued refusal to cooperate with United Nations inspectors in their search for weapons of mass destruction, the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 After a trial, Saddam Hussein was executed in 2006 for crimes committed in a brutal crackdown during his regime
Religious fundamentalism experienced a revival during the late 1900s and early 2000s In Afghanistan, Islamic fundamentalism led to the creation of a strictly theocratic government under the Taliban Though the Taliban was toppled by the United States military after the events of 9/11, the organization still exists and is still trying to regain power in Afghanistan
The world first became aware of the Taliban in 1994 when they were appointed by Islamabad to protect a convoy trying to open up a trade route between Pakistan and Central Asia The group - comprised of Afghans trained in religious schools in Pakistan along with former Islamic fighters or mujahedin (fighters against the Soviet invasion) - proved effective bodyguards, driving off other mujahedin groups who attacked and looted the convoy They went on to take the nearby city of Kandahar, beginning a remarkable advance which led to their capture of the capital, Kabul, in September 1996
The Taliban's popularity with many Afghans initially surprised the country's warring mujahedin factions Ordinary Afghans, weary of the prevailing lawlessness in many parts of the country, were often delighted by Taliban successes in stamping out corruption, restoring peace and allowing commerce to flourish again Their refusal to deal with the existing warlords whose rivalries had caused so much killing and destruction also earned them respect
The Taliban said their aim was to set up the world's most pure Islamic state, banning frivolities like television, music and cinema Their attempts to eradicate crime were reinforced by the introduction of Islamic law including public executions and amputations A flurry of regulations forbidding girls from going to school and women from working quickly brought them into conflict with the international community Such issues, along with restrictions on women's access to health care, also caused some resentment among ordinary Afghans
And while the Taliban have been removed from power, their continued existence raises an important question: Can the conflict between the forces of modernization and forces of traditionalism be reconciled or will continued conflict be the rule of the day?