Dear Historians and other interested redditors,
I'm currently in my final high school year in Germany and in order to graduate I need to present a little thesis on a historical question.
I have decided to hold my presentation about the partition of the Ottoman Empire and its consequences on political instability in the region. However, my presenting time is limited so I will have to scale down my topic by specifying my question on a certain event and its further causes (eg. Gulf War).
Can this question be debated? If yes, how could I specify it? I have considered scaling down on Iraq since one could say it is the most unstable country in the region.
You should check out /u/CptBuck 's two-part podcast episodes: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/5iwgkp/askhistorians_podcast_077_the_end_of_world_war/?utm_source=reddit-android
Just a general piece of advice: don't get too focused on the partitioning/imperialism as a "root cause", but rather consider it as a context within which Arab nationalist and other movements operated, sowing distrust toward the West, etc.
A few other aspects to consider wrt instability in the Middle East more broadly:
the Sunni/Shia conflict as a legacy of 16th century Safavid-Ottoman rivalry.
Developments in Iran's Constitutional era, including Reza Khan/Shah' rise to power, the establishment of the Anglo-Iranian oil company, the later rise of Mohammad Mossadegh and his ousting, and this as a context for the later Islamic revolution in Iran.
Nasser's ambitions in Egypt and the effects of mid-century Arab League conflicts with Israel, and later Sovuet support.
Nasser's conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood and Sayyid Qutb, and the resultant Qutbist ideology (which can be described as a foundational ideology of e.g. ISIS and al-Qaeda; it justifies jihad against other muslims on the basis that they are in a state of ignorance of true Islam. Qutb had some Western education and his theories bear resemblence to some Enlightenment and later thinkers; Rosseau, Carl Schmidt and Lenin are commonly cited examples).
Rise of Ba'athists like Saddam Hussein and al-Assad.
Emergence of Kurdish nationalism.
Something you will want to keep in mind is that many of the developments leading to the present instability only occurred after c. 1950 or even post-1979 (Year of the Iranian revolution). Therefore if you try to draw too much of a straight line from WWI to today, you will end up with a very flawed conclusion.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you want clarifications on any point.