Understanding the Middle East:  A Cultural Challenge

Magstadt 478-region has history of “internecine warfare” among Arabs

What does internecine mean?

Is this an accurate statement?
 

Anecdote about the frog and the scorpion trying to get across the river.
 

What does this mean?  How can we break out of our culturally defined ideas about rationality to “objectively” assess Middle Eastern politics?

Or to assess them “subjectively” from a decidedly Middle Eastern viewpoint?

Why would it be rational for the scorpion to sting the frog?  What are we missing?  What do our definitions of “rationality” and “self-interest” not allow for?

 Magstadt:  quotes Barry Rubin
Arab rulers are both manipulators and prisoners of the power symbols of Islam and Arab nationalism(481)
 

Colonialism
Colonial powers:  Ottomans, Russians (Persia), Britain, France, Italy (seized Libya during WWII)

Britain and France the main rivals

France annexed large parts of N Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco: “the Maghreb”), and had ties to “the Levant” (Syria and Lebanon); Brits had upper hand in Egypt, Palestine
 

Challenges of Modernity
Two different types of regimes:  moderate, traditional  regimes and radical, revolutionary regimes

Mod/trad’l regimes:  Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, and the Persian Gulf sheikdoms (Yemen, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain), Iran before the revolution

Characteristics:  hereditary monarchy, fidelity to Islamic law, rejection of Western-style modernization

Rad-rev regimes:  Syria, Iraq, Algeria, Libya

Characteristics:  Arab nationalism, non-Marxist socialism, secularism
 

 
Religion in the Middle East

 Magstadt makes a lot of sweeping statements about religion in the Middle Eastern  and about the purported “uniqueness” of Islam.

E.G.
“Judaism and Christianity have even deeper roots in the Middle East than Islam (450).”  Is this a fair statement? How long has each really been present?  How long have the various peoples been there?  How long is long enough?  Does this kind of thinking reify inter-faith/inter-cultural conflict?

“Islam is more that a religion; it is a way of life.  Its scripture, the Koran, covers politics, law, and social behavior and even sets forth procedures for divorce, loans, and wills (452).”  Do other religions aspire to be “more than a religion”?  Is it possible for a religion not to affect politics, law, social behavior?  What other religions set forth procedures for divorce, loans, etc.?

“Muhammad mixed politics and religion and created a kind of theocracy—a pattern still discernible in some parts of the Middle East (especially Iran) (453).”  Other examples of theocracy in the world/history?  What is the mix between politics and religion in our society?  In Europe?
 
Sectarian differences within and between countries with Islamic majorities have definitely contributed to political instability in the region

And worked against “State-building”

e.g. Conflict between Islamic nationalists and secularists in Turkey, Egypt, Iran

split between the Shi’ites (minority of Muslims who believe caliph should be a blood descendent of Mohammed) and the Sunni (majority of Muslims who believe caliph should be elected”

Moderate/traditional regimes – Jordan, Morocco, Persian Gulf sheikdoms (Qatar, Oman,UAE, Yemen)

Radical/revolutionary regimes – Egypt under Abdel-Nasser, Syria, Iraq, Algeria, Libya (Arab nationalism, non-Marxist socialism, secularism)
 

Magstadt treats the Middle East as synonymous with “the Arab World”

A region that shares “a culture based on religion (Islam), language (Arabic), and memories of colonial rule” (445)

Are these truly the defining features of the Middle East?

Who does this characterization leave out?
 

Geography and Climate
 The crossroads of three continents:  Europe, Asia and Africa

 Desert, Arabian Peninsula surrounded by sea

 What impact have these features had on the Middle East’s political development?

Discuss Bedouins, nomadic desert people
 Resisted being tied to a “state”
 Or being united into a “nation-state”

Hence, even today, much of region organized into emirates, controlled by Sheiks
 

**Historically weak states in regions
 Low state capacity e.g. trouble extracting taxes

 Does the region’s rich supply of oil enhance or impair state capacity??????
 

Geopolitically, important today because of oil
 But before the industrialized world was so dependent upon oil, Britain, France, Russia all vied for control of the region.

 Why?  What did they want?
 
 
 

 
Arab-Israeli conflict

 When and why was Israel created?

Who are these Palestinian people and why don’t they just go home?

Just get familiar with Israel; don’t worry about the particulars of Egypt, Saudi Arabia