Post-Decolonization

Case Studies:

Egypt

Israel

Iraq

Afghanistan

Geopolitical Significance of the Middle East:

• Region’s strategic/economic importance – key source of world’s petroleum; critical location between Europe, Africa, and Asia

• Two thirds of the world’s crude oil is produced in the Middle East

• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), founded in 1960

• Yet individuals within the region often experienced conflict over the urge to modernize and a desire to adhere to traditional ways of life

Case Study: Egypt

• Egypt became an independent republic in 1952

• By 1954, Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser had taken control of the government

• Nasser encouraged modernization

• He was also a proponent of pan-Arabism or unity among Arab states

• Pan-Arabism failed, but Nasser was successful in modernizing his country

• In 1956, Nasser declared Egyptian ownership of Suez Canal

• During the Suez crisis that followed, French, British, and Israeli troops tried to seize canal

• However, the USA and USSR wished to avoid a serious armed conflict and backed Nasser’s decision for nationalization of the canal

• Nasser also strengthened ties with Soviet Union, at least temporarily

• The Soviets helped the Egyptians construct the Aswan Dam, the world’s largest dam

• But when Soviet advisors attempted to exert too much control, Nasser expelled them

• Nasser died in 1970 and was succeeded by Anwar el-Sadat

• Sadat drew Egypt closer to U.S.A., and in 1978, became first Arab leader to recognize state of Israel

• Sadat was assassinated by Islamic militants in 1981

• Afterwards, Hosni Mubarak served as Egypt’s president

• But during the Arab Spring(2010), Mubarak was deposed

• Now, Egyptians wrestle with diverse ideas regarding the future of the government

• Some advocate theocracy and others democracy

Case Study: Israel

• In 1917, the British issued the Balfour Declaration, publicly stating their intention to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine – whose population, during the late 1910s, was 90 percent Arab

• It is also important to remember that Zionism had developed as an important political philosophy

• One of Zionism earliest advocates was the journalist, Theodore Herzl

• Herzl had witnessed the Dreyfus Affair in France (a case of blatant Anti-Semitism) and believed that Jews would never be safe in a Christian-dominated and Europe

• Zionists believed in the necessity of creating a Jewish homeland

• Therefore, Zionism is Jewish nationalism

• After World War II and horrors of the Holocaust, international sympathy for a Jewish homeland, along with strong U.S. support, led to establishment of state of Israel, in May 1948

• But the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948 stirred up Arab outrage and plunged the Middle East into war

• Israelis had to fight a war in 1948 simply to keep the state that had been given them

• These wars led to the displacement of millions of Palestinian Arabs

• In 1964, the Palestinian diaspora gained a semblance of leadership with the formation of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a terrorist group and political movement led by Yasser Arafat

• Since then, Palestinians have tried to establish a Palestinian state

• In the 1980s, the Palestinian population of Israel staged an uprising called the intifada

• Peace efforts continue but issues of land, autonomy, and security make a peace settlement difficult

Case Study: Iraq

• Iraq came under the control of Saddam Hussein in 1979

• Hussein was sponsored by the U.S. because of his opposition to Iran in the 1980s

• However, in 1990, Hussein order the invasion of the oil-rich state of Kuwait and appeared ready to do same to Saudi Arabia

• During the Gulf War (1991), Hussein was forced to accept a 1991 cease-fire agreement, which included abolishing of chemical and biological weapons programs

• Hussein’s continued refusal to cooperate with U.N. inspectors in search for weapons of mass destruction led to a USA invasion of Iraq in 2003

• Hussein was captured, tried and executed

Case Study: Afghanistan• Islamic fundamentalism led to the creation of a strictly

theocratic government under the Taliban (after the Soviet’s left Afghanistan)

• The Taliban was comprised of Afghans trained in religious schools in Pakistan along with former Islamic fighters of the mujahedin (fighters against the Soviet invasion)

• The Taliban government was overthrown by the USA after 9/11 although Taliban fighters are still active in Afghanistan today