The political climate of the Middle East from post World War One to modern day

by [deleted]

[deleted]

CptBuck

Sure. I mean, this is to some extent going to be a matter of opinion but I can point to what I think would be the consensus Major Events in the region. For our purposes I'm going to define the Middle East as the region West-East from Egypt to Iran and North-South from Turkey-Yemen. I'm also going to try to stick to events that can be regarded as being truly of regional significance or occurring in regionally influential countries, so for example I'll include the Lebanese Civil War but exclude the Omani Civil War (Dhofar Rebellion.)

So going chronologically, I would point to:

Circa 1918-1924

  • The end of the Ottoman empire, the formation of the Arab mandates and the drawing of borders in the region from 1918 to roughly the mid-1920s. This also fits in with Western Imperialism in the region more generally, which is obviously a lengthier period, chronologically. This included the creation, by Britain and France, of Iraq, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Mandate (which, critically, integrated the Balfour Declaration on creating a Jewish National Home in Palestine.) This also included the War(s) of Turkish independence that led to the creation of the Turkish Republic.
  • As a related matter, the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate, which has had profound implications on the Islamic world's self-conception in the absence of an unambiguous religious leader in the past century.

I talked about these issues at some length in two of the /r/askhistorians podcast episodes here and here that may be of interest.

The Interwar Period, Circa 1922-1939

  • Imperial rule in the Middle East in the interwar period, anti-Imperialism and Arab nationalism in the Middle East. This period includes the independence (or, really, pseudo-independence which is a point of discussion on its own) of Egypt in 1922 and Iraq in 1933, as well as the emergence/rise to prominence of nationalist independence movements throughout the region. Imperial policy within the mandates, including the implementation of Zionism as policy (e.g. the Churchill White Paper, the 1939 White Paper).
  • The foundation of the Muslim Brotherhood and the emergence of Islamism as a transnational political force.
  • The discovery of oil in the region. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company had struck in Iran much earlier, but the 1920s and 30s are when oil became a critical resource in the region with the discovery of oil fields in Iraq in the 1920s, and in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain (among others) in the 1930s. Foreign ownership of oil companies and oil resources in otherwise independent countries is also of critical importance for later developments.

World War II in the Middle East.

  • The lie of "independence" is revealed in much of the region with the Anglo-Soviet invasion and coup in Iran, the Abdeen Palace incident in Egypt, the Anglo-Iraqi war. In the French Mandates you have the Syria-Lebanon campaign, Lebanese independence in 1943 (supported and then opposed by DeGaulle and the Free French Government.)

The post-WWII years, circa 1945-1952

  • The Jewish revolt in Palestine, and then the 1947-48 civil war and the withdrawal of Britain from Palestine. Menachem Begin's The Revolt is a great first-hand account of this.
  • The 1948 War, the birth of Israel and the defeat of the Arab powers.
  • The political fallout in the Arab world from the defeat in 1948, namely, revolution, coups d'etat or assassinations of political leaders in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, etc.
  • The post-1948 Palestinian refugee crisis and Jordanian/Egyptian occupation of the West Bank and Gaza respectively.

The Early Cold War: circa 1952-1967

  • The Middle East as a front in the Cold War between the USA and USSR.
  • The so-called "Arab Cold War" between revolutionary Pan-Arab Socialist states against the traditionalist monarchies, which was partially but not entirely an overlap of with global capitalist/communist conflict.
  • The Suez Crisis and nationalization of oil resources.
  • The US-backed coup d'etat in Iran.
  • The Eisenhower Doctrine.
  • Nasserism and pan-Arabism, the flash in the pan of the United Arab Republic, the emergence of Baathism.
  • Repression of Islamist movements: Nasser against the Brotherhood.
  • The Six-Days War

The Middle Cold War, circa 1967-1979

  • The aftermath of the Six-Days War.
  • The transition from Nasser to Sadat.
  • The 1973 War.
  • The outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975.
  • The Palestine Liberation Organization, militant Palestinian groups and their effect on the region, e.g. the Black September civil conflict in Jordan.
  • The end of traditional imperialism in the region with the British withdrawal from East of Suez and the independence of the Arab Gulf States.

1979

Arguably the watershed year in the modern history of the region.

  • The Egypt-Israel peace agreement.
  • The Islamic Revolution in Iran.
  • Rise of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
  • The seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which subsequently led to a political and religious shift in Saudi Arabia away from liberalizing political and religious reform and towards an international export of Wahhabism.
  • The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Post-1979

  • The promulgation of the Carter doctrine, that the United States would use force to defend the Persian Gulf.
  • Consequences of the Iranian revolution: the US hostage crisis, the Iran-Iraq War.
  • Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East, particularly nuclear and chemical weapons and ballistic missile development in Iraq, Syria and Iran.
  • The Arab Jihad in Afghanistan.
  • The emergence of Salafi Jihadi terrorism: the assassination of Sadat, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
  • The First Gulf War.
  • The Oslo Accords and Jordan-Israel Peace

Phewwwww.

Those are the big ones I would point to. The best overview book for the modern Middle East is probably Eugen Rogan's The Arabs: A History.

I will also be the first to admit that the above essentially leaves out the experience of the Turkish Republic, though I think it's involvement in most of the above incidents can be described as limited, with some notable exceptions.

In terms of the political "climate" it also leaves out socio-political developments or trends like the emergence of mass media in the Middle East, freedoms of political expression, Arabic cultural trends (e.g. the golden age of Egyptian cinema and music) all of which were often deeply political or politicized.

I'd be happy to expand on any of the above or point you towards additional sources.