Political Islam and U.S. foreign policy : elements shaping the political landscape of the Middle East

Abstract

When speaking of the Middle East one has to keep in mind the vast array of ethnic, religious and geographic differences that characterise this region. If one was to define it in broad terms the region extends from historical Greater Syria and Egypt, to include the Maghreb, Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Iraq and the Gulf States, as well as far-flung places like Pakistan and Afghanistan to the Far East, or Sudan well deep into Africa. This study will concentrate strictly on the Middle East made up of the Arab world and will omit the Maghreb states as well as Iran and Turkey, though some of the general characteristics of the making of the Middle Eastern states apply to the latter too. Much of the Arab world was still under Ottoman rule by the early 20th century when British and French interests in the region were starting to take a clearer shape. There were important centres which managed to escape direct Ottoman control - such was the Gulf and central Arabia, as well as Egypt - however, these did not exists independently, but were under some form of British control. By the mid-19th century the Ottoman Empire had developed clear weaknesses and was the center of European interest, which increased after it entered the First World War on the side of Germany and Austria. The Ottoman Empire thus had to fight the Russians on one front and the British on another. The British had, by this time, been established in Egypt and the Gulf since the 1800s. By the end of the war British troops advanced through Palestine towards Damascus while another British force had already entered Iraq through the Gulf. The end of the war in 1918 saw Britain and France firmly in control of the Middle East and the Maghreb, while the Ottoman Empire was on the brink of collapse.