Why is there war in the Middle East?
The Middle East, often referred to as the birthplace of civilization, is a region that has witnessed relentless conflict and violence throughout modern history. The most profound and persistent conflict is undoubtedly the ongoing struggle in Palestine, with its roots extending back to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. But wars in the Middle East predate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with earlier conflicts, such as World War I and II, having significant impacts on the region. In this article, we will explore some of the key historical factors, ideological divisions, geographical tensions, and geopolitical motivations that have contributed to the region’s perpetual war footing.
Historical Origins
The Ottoman Legacy: A History of Intricacies and Intrusions
Prior to the creation of the state of Israel, the modern Middle East was once governed by the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922), which stretched from North Africa to Central Asia and into Eastern Europe. Upon its collapse, the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, forged behind the backs of both warring parties in World War I, redrew the region’s borders along imaginary lines, creating an opportunity for conflict and unrest in the post-war period (Table 1: WWI Border Redrawn).
| Country/Bernier | Post-WWII Borders |
|---|---|
| Ottoman Territories | Turkish/Syrian Border Conflict* Iranti Border Dispute (2020-present) Arab Republic of Egypt (Post WWII) |
| Modern Ottoman Territory | Jordan (1938)
Iraq |
As Western powers scrambled to expand their influence, the subsequent disintegration of the Ottoman Empire led to the redrawing of borders, exacerbating existing tensions and forging fault lines between various regional interests.
Ideological Division
The Struggle Between Regional and Global Powers
The cold war era, marked by tension between the United States-led Western bloc and the Soviet Union-led Eastern Bloc (1947-1989), significantly impacted Middle East politics. In Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon, authoritarian regimes tied closely to the Soviet Union; while Iraq, Israel, and Iran aligned themselves with the United States (Figs. 1).
The 1990s and 2000s saw the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), with aspirations for a separate homeland from Sri Lanka, support in the region. Iran began to bolster its involvement in Iraq as America’s presence grew there (Table 2):
| Country/Bernier | Alliances 1930s-2016 |
|---|---|
| Iraq | Cahill/United Kingdom-US (2003)*) Alawi (1979) |
| Lebanon | Nasser/Egyt
*Western Bloc: France/LCC |
Radical Islamism spread amid the post-Cold War vacuum, as in many cases, political dissent crystallized into Fundamentalist religious movements, influenced by the Islamist currents of Egypt’s 2005 revolution, (e.g., 2020 Turkey’s Kurdish peace process, the Shia movement in Lebanon, as they sought an alternative source for legitimacy (Fig.2).
Geographic Tensions
Territorial Disputes
Conflict surrounds the Middle East, such as territorial disputes Kurdish-Turkey border tensions Iran-Israel/Turkey/Syria/Jordan**.
To illustrate, consider:
- Nineteenth-century boundaries not aligned with modern geographical demarcations
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Geopolitical Factors
External Interference & Resource-Quest
With the fall of communism (1989), American presence in the region shifted emphasis from a Soviet-brokered containment strategy toward pursuing *Energy Security 3-Oil-rich countries 8, as in
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