There is no other place more important than the Middle East to maintain a balance between the different elements of our foreign policy. It has economic, political and even spiritual interests.
The East Arc
The term “Al-Sharq al-Awsat” was invented in 1902 by the American admiral, the individual of the Alfred Thayer Mahaan (1804-1914). Before that, the Americans and the Europeans referred to the region with the term “Al Sharq”, and this term has referred, without precise identification, the area of the land extending between Morocco and Egypt, then leaning In the Arabic Peninsula to the Levant before he finally reached Turkey.
But this division was not completely based on the geography of the place; Casablanca, for example, falls west of Madrid, Marseille and Rome, so that we can say that the term “Orient” described a region which brought together a distinguished civilization, rule methods, social structures, models of ‘Architecture and clothing.
Residents of this region were known to Westerners by several names: the Arabs, the people of the Levant, the Algerians, the Berbers and the Turks. The dominant belief was hostile to the West, and they spoke a language with a strange impact on the American ear.
As for what distinguishes the East more than its political, technical or linguistic specifications, this religion called Islam was. In the 18th century, the Americans considered the followers of this doctrine as “the other” which were completely different from them. From their point of view, they were a strange and inconsistent mass, and they descended from a great civilization which collapsed a long time ago, in addition that they were primitive, characterized by violence and cruelty.
Mohhan, the American marine theorist, presented his strategic vision on the importance of the region, which he visited in 1867 and 1894, in his book “The Asia Problem” published in 1900.
Mahaan established an area between the two lines of 30 and 40 north, extending from the Mediterranean basin in the West in Korea to the East, and it was called “Central Asia”. He stressed that this region includes land of strategic importance which will remain in continuous international competition in the foreseeable future.
The Mahahan Section of this region in two main parts: half -eastern, rich in natural resources, and the western half, which embraces the most important communication and transport routes, such as the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Gulf Arabic, in addition to the capacities for creating wild iron lines. Mohan considered that these vital corridors are necessary to reach east and improve international influence.
In an article published in 1902 in the National Review, Mahan reviewed and developed his ideas on the region which had previously called “Central Asia”. The article, entitled “Persian Gulf in International Politics”, has dealt with the strategic importance of the Persian Gulf as a pivotal point in the network of future communication lines between East and West.
Mahan indicated that the Gulf can become the end of a future railway which extends through the continents, to be a potential alternative to the water road which passes through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea.
In this article, Mahan presented a new term for the region, describing it as the “Middle East”. He explained that this term was not previously familiar to him, but he adopted it as part of his strategic vision. This new formulation was based on Western concepts focused on the importance of India and the Persian Gulf as strategic examples within the international interest network.
Middle East or is East!
In his analytical article, Mahan presented a vision at the front of the importance of the “Middle East” as a strategic region in future future conflicts. Mahan expected the region to be at the center of competition between Great Britain, with which the United States will participate in the preservation of its interests and between climbing naval forces such as imperial Germany, in More of the land threat represented by Russia.
Mohan considered that the realization of the importance of this region should be part of a complete American strategy which qualifies it to play a more influential role in the world theater.
After Alfred Thier Mahan stressed the growing importance of the Middle East, the US State Department rushed to reinacute the region and consider it as a vital field for the economic and strategic interests of the United States.
In 1909, the ministry created a business department of the Middle East, which at the time included the interests of the United States in the Ottoman, Russian, German and Austrian-Hungarian empires, in addition to other regions such as ‘Italy, Greece, Balkans, Abyssinia, Faris, Egypt and Colonies Great Britain and France in the Mediterranean basin.
However, a series of reorganizations over the next thirty-five years led to the creation of an office for the Middle East and Africa in 1944, then was divided into three sections:
- Affairs of the Near East: annexation of Turkey, Iraq, Palestine, East Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other countries of the peninsula Arabic, as well as Greece.
- Affairs of the Middle East: including Afghanistan, Burma, Ceylan (Sri Lanka), India and Iran.
- African affairs: focus on the rest of the African continent.
With the deepening of the participation of the United States during the Second World War, it relied on the British “supply center” in Cairo to facilitate supplies and supplies in North Africa, in the south of the ‘Europe and in the Arab peninsula, and the rest of what was previously known as the minimum.
This cooperation has led to the consolidation of the use of the terms of the “Near East” and the mutual “Middle East” in political and popular circles.
After the Second World War, the term “Middle East” became widespread (and in the United States of America, its brief press expression is also used: Middle East); He now has a more contemporary Berne, while the term “Near East” has become like an old fashion, just like the term “Levant” and “Al -harq”, during a previous period.
There is no doubt that the name of this part of the surface of the earth in the Middle East is no less abusive than representing it as part of the East. It includes a large area with large environmental diversity, mountains which are besieged by snow with arid deserts with fertile rivers and coastal rivers which are irrigated in rain, and it includes very large cities as well as a large number of bananades , villages and inhabited by many different peoples who have distinct languages, cultures and methods of life.
Most of the inhabitants of this region are Muslim (but of different doctrines), but it also includes many non-Muslims, and most Muslims live outside, in a land not a Middle East, like: the Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and therefore religion is not valid as a fundamental characteristic of the province. At the same time, the name of this region in Asharq Al -Awsat reveals the creation of the European perspective of the center: it is “average” and “eastern”, only in terms of relationship with Western Europe.
Thus, the term “Middle East” has evolved significantly due to being simply a geographic description of a political and strategic concept which expresses the interests of Western powers, in particular from the United States.
Despite its semantic transformations, it still reflects a Western vision which places the region in a framework which serves international agendas instead of expressing its true identity. However, the “Middle East”, with its cultural and geographic variety, remains at the center of global competition, making the term an essential tool for understanding the current geopolitical dynamics.
The opinions of the article do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al-Jazeera.