Exploring the Middle East in International Affairs: a look at the archive
International Affairs Staff
In August International Affairs published its latest virtual issue, a collection of articles from our 96-year archive on a specific theme selected by an expert in the field. This month the focus was the Middle East. Louise Fawcett, Head of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford, brought together 15 articles published between 1926 and 2017 which provide an insight into the key political events affecting the region. Read on for some highlights from this collection, or explore the full virtual issue here.
1) Louise Fawcett’s introduction (2018)
Read the full introduction here.
2) Arnold Wilson on the state of the Middle East (1926)
Louise Fawcett: ‘It is easy to choose quotes to score points against British policy, and to be wise after events, but one cannot but be struck by the extent to which British officials simply got things wrong.’
Read the full article here.
3) A. H. Hamzavi on Iran’s experience of the Second World War (1944)
Louise Fawcett: ‘Without shirking from a candid appraisal of the Reza Shah period, and the huge challenges that Iran faced as a result of the allied invasion in 1941, Hamzavi nonetheless portrays this as a moment of opportunity for Iran as a rising power in a competitive international system.’
Read the full article here.
4) H. A. R. Gibb on a divided Middle East (1944)
Louise Fawcett: ‘Gibb, an eminent historian of Arabism and Islam, surveys the region in 1944, observing the widespread regional “disquiet and foreboding”. He speculates on possible future regional options including the rise of army-based dictatorship, a “Moslem revolution” or an anti-Western movement appealing to the “old Moslem sense of solidarity”. All these outcomes have subsequently emerged.’
Read the full article here.
5) A. S. Eban on westernization in the Middle East (1947)
Louise Fawcett: ‘Eban’s focus is on the Arab world, but this was not only an Arab issue. Many of the tensions he alludes to are as relevant to a country like Iran, where both an affirmation of self-sufficiency (already noted in 1944) and rejection of the West accompanied the Iranian Revolution of 1979.’
Read the full article here.
6) Bernard Lewis on Turkey’s national identity (1952)
Louise Fawcett: ‘Bernard Lewis explores three tendencies in Turkey which have coexisted and competed over time: Islam, Ottomanism and Turkism. He observes how the newly established Turkish Republic adopted the idea of the Turkish nation, but that its underlying secularity was “never quite as complete as was sometimes believed”.’
Read the full article here.
7) Owen Tweedy on refugees in the Middle East (1952)
Louise Fawcett: ‘Owen Tweedy’s article paints a doleful picture of the region’s refugee tragedy in the wake of the first Arab–Israel War of 1948. That war saw the displacement of 800,000 Arabs from what became Israel. For those who have followed the history and more recent refugee and humanitarian crises of the region, Tweedy’s piece on the refugees of the 1950s makes for compelling reading.’
Read the full article here.
8) Elizabeth Monroe on the transformation of Kuwait (1954)
Louise Fawcett: ‘While the Kuwait of 1954 is a far cry from the prosperous emerging city of the late twentieth century, Monroe hails the successes of its leaders and the enthusiasm of the people for purposefully converting their new-found oil wealth.’
Read the full article here.
9) Charles Issawi on Middle Eastern perceptions of the West (1959)
Louise Fawcett: ‘The article by Charles Issawi was written the year after the momentous events surrounding the establishment of the United Arab Republic (UAR) in 1958. This was a key Arab nationalist moment — one that saw the temporary union of Egypt and Syria. Issawi’s warnings to the West about its failure to gauge regional politics and lack of positive engagement with the Arab world may have been accurate, but his predictions of western weakness were premature.’
Read the full article here.
10) Eugene Rostow on Israel–Arab relations (1971)
Louise Fawcett: ‘Rostow’s take on the Middle East is that it is primarily a stage on which superpower rivalries are played out, and in that rivalry the US dominated. Without disputing the centrality of the Arab–Israel conflict, Rostow’s approach shifts attention away from regional politics and ideologies and places regional events firmly in a global context.’
Read the full article here.
11) Yezid Sayigh on the first Gulf War (1991)
Louise Fawcett: ‘With Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the international intervention that followed, the Gulf is at the epicentre of regional politics, but once more the crisis is of a more general nature. Sayigh portrays this as a failure of Arab regional order.’
Read the full article here.
12) Kristina Kausch and Richard Youngs on Mediterranean geopolitics (2009)
Louise Fawcett: ‘The article by Kristina Kausch and Richard Youngs takes a critical look at European policies in the Middle East from the perspective of 2009. They show how, despite a plethora of well-resourced and much publicized “Neighbourhood” or “Mediterranean”-focused policies designed to create a safe and mutually profitable space for MENA–EU relations, the results have been disappointing.’
Read the full article here.
13) Fawaz Gerges on Obama’s Middle East policy (2013)
Louise Fawcett: ‘On the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War, and with Obama embarking on his second term, Fawaz Gerges exposes the myth of a transformative policy agenda and analyses “why US Middle East policy persistently fails”. Obama’s policy is characterized by continuity over change.’
Read the full article here.
14) Lina Khatib on Qatar’s foreign policy (2013)
Louise Fawcett: ‘Like Kuwait, Qatar has been able to punch above its weight on the international stage, demonstrating the ability of small states to command influence. Great wealth, but also the broadcast network Al Jazeera have helped this objective. Yet Khatib, Head of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House, also shows how the foundations of Qatar’s meteoric rise are inherently unstable.’
Read the full article here.
15) Roy Allison on Russia’s involvement in Syria (2013)
Louise Fawcett: ‘In averting regional chaos, Allison remarks how President Putin appears to believe that “the tenacity of the Russian position on Syria has earned it greater regional influence (if not sympathy) in the Middle East as well as enhanced global status as a central player in this major international crisis”.’
Read the full article here.
16) William Zartman on borders in the Middle East (2017)
Louise Fawcett: ‘William Zartman writes that states, boundaries and sovereignty in MENA may be “unsteady” but are likely to remain largely unchanged. Recognizing the multiple and continuing challenges to states over their 100-year history, he concludes that MENA states “have an existence that matters and at the same time is characteristically vulnerable, and that the imperfect Middle East system is not on the brink of any major change, either in its components or in the regional order among them”.’
Read the full article here.
