Poli 341: Foreign Policy in the Middle East Flashcards
Studying the Middle East
What are the key two issues when studying the Middle East?
1) Various Middle Eastern issues are highly contentions aka they cause arguments
2) Is it appropriate to take an open political stance, aka Western instituions continously intervene in the Middle East and unbaised approach is impossible due to Western policies.
Studying the Middle East
What is the ethical issue of researching the Middle East?
1) Need to ensure that the issue or occurence is accurately depicted, as an inaccruate portrayal has significant consequences.
2) Ethical social science means trying to inform policy decisions with careful research.
Studying the Middle East
In what sense has studying the Middle East been unethical?
- The contracting for think tanks, the intelligence and the military. Aka academics are paid better to reinforce Western hegemony.
- Western scholars when interacting with local experts, activists and informants run the risk of putting these people in danger due to repressive govenrments.
Studying the Middle East
What are the two main portrayals of Islam in the West?
Said “Islam Through Western Eyes”(1980)
1) Westerners use the brutality of radical Islamist to make Islam appear as the violent “other”
or
2) Westerners objectify Islam by highlighting Islams contirbution to civilization, developemnt and democratic niceness.
Studying the Middle East
What is the common theme between the two Western portrayls of Islam?
- Both objectifiy Islam but one is in a negtaive way and in a positive way
- Islam is degraded to a mere object of study and not a subjective body.
Said “Islam Through Western Eyes”(1980)
Studying the Middle East
In what sense are the two protrayals of Islam two sides of the same coin?
Said “Islam Through Western Eyes”(1980)
- They rely on each other to exist.
- Since the Middle Ages, the West has always regarded Islam through the lens of the “passions, prejudice and political interests”
Studying the Middle East
What is Orientalism?
Said “Islam Through Western Eyes”(1980)
- It is an imaginative geogrphy that divides the world into two unequal parts:
1) The Civilized West
2) The large exotic, uncivilized other.
Studying the Middle East
What does Said argue in his book “Orientalism”?
- He argues that it is impossible that a “large ideologiclaly freightened generalization could cover all the rich and diverse partiuclarly of Islamic life”
Said “Orientalism”
Studying the Middle East
What is the oriental other according to Said?
Said “Orientalism”
- The Orient has a larger territory and population, and is therefore capable of greater power than the West.
- ## The Western colonial imaginary has situated Islam within the Oriental Other, objectifying it while also fearing it as a threat to Christianity.
Studying the Middle East
What is a key element of the oriental objectification?
Said “Orientalism”
- It has to do with threat, and how this threat influences various academic fields.
Studying the Middle East
How did 19th century colonialism impact the Middle East?
- France and England demarcated their occupations of the Islamic East which resulted in the Orient undergoing a significant technical modernization and development.
- Scholarship became much more elaborate and more funded because the Orient began interacting with Western project of imperial conquest.
Studying the Middle East
How did Napoleon contribute to current Western scholarship on the Middle East?
- During his 1798 conquest of Egypt, Napoleon brought with him “a sophisiticated group of scientists”
- He did not want to merely conquer the Middle East but wanted to understand them using methodology.
Studying the Middle East
What is meant by the Middle East has been objectified?
- The Middle East due to colonialism became familiar, accessible and representable, it could be seen, studied and managed.
- And seeing them and studying them accurately is contigent on the goal of the scholar.
Studying the Middle East
Why was France’s colonization of Algeria a key turning point for obectification?
- Hundreds of thousands Frence people settled in Algeria (overseas France) and this reuslted in the systematization of knowledge to faciliate and perfect political control.
- Scholarship was used to understand religion, custsoms, language patetrns, geography, agornomy and economic functions.
Studying the Middle East
How is scholarly knowledge of power?
- Positivism and science can play an optimisticrolein our lives, and research findings according to positivism is objective “scientific fact”
- Knowledge is not relative but it is absolute according to positivism.
Studying the Middle East
What role does bias play when studying the Middle East?
- It plays an enormous role in shaping the findings.
Studying the Middle East
What is the benthamite panopticon?
- Proposed by Jeremy Bentham, it is a structure that allowed for the authority to see what the subjects are doing at all times.
- There is this idea that as we assemble knowledge that we can have a total view of these other (Oriental) peoplesso that no aspect of their lives is hidden, unseen, or unintelligible.
- This is done for the sake of the empire, exerting imperial control.
Studying the Middle East
What is geo-politics of knowledge?
Walter Mignolo
- In the colonial eyes, the First World possesses knowledge while the Third World possesses culture.
- The Third World however, is only suitable for builiding expertise by the First World.
- There is an intersection between colonization and knowledge production.
Studying the Middle East
What is epistemic silences?
- Dynamic between the knower and the known
Studying the Middle East
What is the myth of the detached observer?
Walter Mignolo
- It is the claim to have objective knowledge is completely undermined by wealthy industrialized countries.
- It is the idea that neutral and objective seekers simultaneously control the riles and put themselves in a place of priviledged when evaluating and dictating.
Studying the Middle East
How is western scholarly research baised to Islam?
- Just because you have access to various advances such as sociology and anthropology does not mean that you are unbaise.
- People with advanced qualitification are not above having these baises in fact they introduced and perpetuates these baises within their writings and scholar.
Studying the Middle East
In what sense are Western scholars of the Orient concealed?
- They conceal their feelings about Islam by using language and terms which are not understood, therefore making the jargon appear objective.
- They portray Islam and the Middle East inaccurately, similarly to the way information was constucted during colonization.
Studying the Middle East
How have Western “experts” domesticated the Middle East?
- The US has become a superpower, it found key interest in the Middle East and developed a “huge apparatus of university, government and business experts” who “study Islam and the Middle East” and have “domesticated” it for the US audience.
- Muslims and Arabs viewed as either oil-suppliers or potential terrorists
- This phenomenon has exploded post 9/11 especially since the US occupation of Iraq.
- This dominance is not reciprocal (except maybe for ultra-rich Gulf elites)
Studying the Middle East
What is the counterinsurgency theory and practice?
Jauregui, 2010
- After the US invasions of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003), “segments in the United States military have taken a new interest in culture and ethnography”
- Gain knowledge of the cultural ‘terrain’
- Social sciences scholars have advised governments on military operations in the Middle East and have used the spaces provided by military occupations to study those areas.
Studying the Middle East
Can scholars “help” instill democracy under occupation?
- Political scientist Larry Diamond opposed the US Iraq invasion.
- Nevertheless, he agreed to apply his expertise in helping to draft a new Iraqi constitution.
- Afterwards he wrote a book about it.
- Begs the questions: was the US occupation doomed to fail, or did it fail because of mismanagement?
Forming Middle Eastern States
Why does state formation matter for international relations?
Hint: there are 4 reasons
1) The process of state formation in developing countries underscores colonial powers’ role
2) The Western role in drawing Middle Eastern borders and the impacts on interstate relations within the region and beyond.
3) Domestic instability in some Middle Eastern states was reflected in their foreign policies, contributing to turmoil
4) “European club of states” set the rules of the game making it difficult for non-European states to join however, this is difficult because of colonial control.
Forming Middle Eastern States
What is the significance of the Ottoman Empire?
- Arab subjects came to know “stateness” because of the Empire reforming to avoid decline.
Forming Middle Eastern States
What were the key aspects of the Ottoman Empires “stateness”?
Hint: there are 5
1) A legal system
2) Provincial, regional, and local elections
3) Bureaucracy (shift from a patrimony system of people getting jobs based on families to a meritocratic system where you studied and passed a state exam)
4) “Census, land registration, the tax office, and military conscription” (Rogan, p.43)
5) Investment in infrastructure and construction
Forming Middle Eastern States
What is the significance of Arab Nationalism?
- It reflects European notions of nation-states rooted in national identity
-National identity transcends race, religion etc
Forming Middle Eastern States
What is the root of Arab Nationalism?
- Arab resentment of the Ottoman Empire grew after the 1908 “Young Turk” revolution sought to centralize Ottoman rule
- The Arab Revolt (1916-17) against Ottoman rule helped to crystalize a sense of Arab nationalism based on a vision of self-determination
- As much as this revolt was homegrown within Arab communities, the Arab Revolt was also the direct result of an alliance with the British (the years map over WWI).
Forming Middle Eastern States
What were the objectives of Arab Nationalism?
- They didn’t want the Ottoman Empire to strengthen but wanted to gain independence
- Arab people should govern themselves
Forming Middle Eastern States
What is the McMahon-Husayn Correspondence?
- As fighting raged between the British and the Ottoman Turks in WWI, Sharif Husayn of Mecca addressed a letter to the British High Commissioner in Cairo, Sir Henry McMahon
Forming Middle Eastern States
What was the content of the McMahon-Husayn Correspondence?
Hint: there are 4
1) Husayn expressed the national aspirations of Arab peoples living under Ottoman rule, and sought British support for their independence struggle, including arms and material
2) McMahon resisted Husayn’s territorial claims but committed Great Britain to assisting Arab peoples in the Middle East (use local allies- proxy forces- rather then their own men)
3) The British wanted to encourage a general Arab revolt against the Turks to assist their war effort
4) They hoped to safeguard their hold on the Suez Canal
Forming Middle Eastern States
What was the outcome of the McMahon-Husayn Correspondence?
Hint: there are 4
1) Great Britain is prepared to recognize and support the independence of the Arabs in all the regions within the limits demanded by the Sherif of Mecca.
2) Great Britain will guarantee the Holy Places [i.e., Mecca, Medina against all external aggression and will recognise their inviolability
3) When the situation admits, Great Britain will give to the Arabs her advice and will assist them to establish what may appear to be the most suitable forms of government in those various territories.
4) it is understood that the Arabs have decided to seek the advice and guidance of Great Britain only, and that such European advisers and officials as may be required for the formation of a sound form of administration will be British.
Forming Middle Eastern States
What is controversial about the outcome of the McMahon-Husayn Correspondence?
- The protection of Holy Place is ambiguous and unclear, does it include Jerusalem?
- Another form of colonialism, Great Britain has control over Arab countries futures.
Forming Middle Eastern States
What is the Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 1916?
- As the Ottoman Empire fell, the UK and France made a secret pact to carve up their respective spheres of influence in the Middle East
- It reflected British and French colonial expansion worldwide.
Forming Middle Eastern States
What were the contents of the Sykes-Picot Agreement?
1) Proclaimed British and French readiness to “recognize” and “protect” independent Arab states, separately or in a confederation - (“protection” signified “control”)
2) Opened up the Middle East as a market for British and French goods, to be imported via ports (Haifa, Basra) and railways (the Baghdad line)
3) Committed both countries to prevent any other power from pursuing strategic interests in the region, on land or at sea
It was unknown at this time that Iraq was rich in oil.
Forming Middle Eastern States
What caused the formation of the Sykes-Picot Agreement?
- Restrick German access to the region.
- Acknowledged Russian and Italian interests in the region
Forming Middle Eastern States
What is the Balfour Declaration?
- An agreement made on November 2, 1917
- It was a a result of Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann negotiating with the British government
- Represented a turning point for Zionist aspirations, which became politically relevant in the region
Forming Middle Eastern States
Why was the Balfour Declaration controversial?
- Key British policymakers debated whether the Balfour Declaration contradict promises made in the McMahon-Husayn agreement, or was consistent with them
- Afterward, Husayn himself called upon the Arab population to “welcome the Jews as brethren and cooperate with them”
Forming Middle Eastern States
Why was the Ottoman Empire loss of territory significant?
World War I
- Because after the British and Entente advances on the territory, Arabs thought that the British would help them acheive statehood.
- Once territory was lost, Arab militiamen joined them under the leadership of T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”), the British did send them material and weapons
Forming Middle Eastern States
What is the Wilson’s Fourteen Points of January 2018?
World War I
- Woodrow Wilson dreamed of an international organization that would provide collective security and prevent future wars
- Reflecting growing US power, he made his“Fourteen Points” address to the US Congress, envisioning self-rule for previously occupied nations
- The US helped win WWI
Forming Middle Eastern States
What were the contents of Wilson’s Fourteen Points?
World War I
- In his 12th point, he addressed Arab nationalist aspirations: “the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured and undoubted.
- Security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development.
Forming Middle Eastern States
What is the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919?
World War I
-Convened by US Pres. Wilson, the Versailles Conference promoted self-determination worldwide
- It determined that European power should govern some former Ottoman territories as a “sacred trust” under the League of Nations, pending independence
- Arab states were designated “type A” mandates that would be tutored towards independent statehood
Forming of Middle Eastern States
Why was the Versaille Peace conference controversial, Arab aspiration for statehood?
World War I
- Various Arab states were left-out
- Egyptian Nationalists launched an uprising against UK in 1919, forcing the British to allow an Egyptian delegation to Versailles Conference
- Sharif Husayn’s son Amir Faisal, crowned King of Syria in March 1920, traveled to the Versailles Conference to represent the Syrian position
Forming Middle Eastern States
What threatened the Versaille Peace conference?
Hint: USSR and Palestine
- 1918: Bolsheviks in USSR released secret details of Sykes-Picot agreement
- 1917: British Balfour Declaration pledges to assist the foundation of a “Jewish national home” in Palestine
- 1919: Faisal compromised with the emergence of Zionism, signs agreement with Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann acknowledging Jewish claims to Palestine
Forming Middle Eastern States
What is the San Remo Conference of April 1920?
Post World War I
- UK, French, and Italian representatives met at San Remo to finalize arrangements of trusteeship in the Middle East
- The Mandatory governments were given “full powers of legislation and of administration”
- Being a protectorate is different from a colony but it more or less means the same thing.
Forming Middle Eastern States
What was the outcome of the San Remo Conference?
Post World War I
- The League of Nations awarded the trusteeship of Palestine, Transjordan, and Iraq to the British ->It came into operation in 1923
- France received Mandatory powers over Syria and Lebanon, ending King Faisal’s rule over Syria
Forming Middle Eastern States
What is the Franco-Syrian War?
Post World War I
- It was a war characterized by France’s attempt to gain control of Syria following the British’s declaration of independent Syria.
- The French did end up getting claim of Syria, and Syria wanted to undermine French imperial legitmacy resulting in the formation of the Lebanese state.
Forming Middle Eastern States
Why is the case of Egypt significant in the case of decolonization?
Post World War I
- It was limited.
Forming Middle Eastern States
How was Egypts decolonization limited?
Post: World War I
- Egyptians continuously reaffirmed their position that they would not be a British colony.
- Despite the British treaty with Egypt ending the British mandate and granting Egypt independence, under the Treaty’s terms the British maintained control over the Suez Canal; military bases on Egyptian territory to “defend” it against “external aggression”; protecting foreign interests (e.g., investments, banking) and local minorities (e.g., Copts, Jews); and the Sudan
Note: this did help prevent German military gains in WWII
Forming Middle Eastern States
Did Egypt ever get full independence?
- Egypt still wasn’t admitted to the League of Nations; nationalist grievances persisted
- Never got full independence
- Can not fully get out of the grasp of Britain/foreign intervention
Forming of Middle Eastern States
What were the challenges that arose post WWI?
- ## Because of Arab nationalism (indigenous opposition) there was no stable colonial administration in the Middle East leading to a constant struggle to assert dominance.
Forming Middle Eastern States
How was the lack of stable colonial control addressed?
- “Colonial states were intelligence states insofar as the entire bureaucratic apparatus of imperial administration in Muslim territories contributed to state surveillance of the subject population” (Martin, p.35)
Forming Middle Eastern States
What are intelligence states?
- Involves espionage
- The institutions the colonial state were designed around surveillance
- This is a major problem due to lack of consent from the governed
- “Protectorates and mandates may not have been colonies properly defined in constitutional terms, but the security service activity within them was assuredly colonial in its fundamental purpose: to solidify imperial rule”
Forming Middle Eastern States
Why did the British have interest in Iraq?
Case of Iraq
- By 1914, the UK wanted Iraqi oil.
Forming Middle Eastern States
What characterized the British Mandate in Iraq?
- British captured Baghdad in March 1917
- The British Mandate carved Iraq out of the Ottoman provinces of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra
- They imported King Faisal from Arabia, appointed a Sunni monarchy to govern
- Kurds in north, Shi’a in south rejected Sunni primacy
- British made ultra strategic Kuwait a separate country, angering Iraqis
Forming Middle Eastern States
Why did they appoint a Sunni leader?
British Mandate in Iraq
- Divide by group and conquer
- Predisposed inter tension and continuous challenges to the authority of any particular group
Forming Middle East States
Did the Iraquians revolt?
British Mandate in Iraq
- Yes, angered by British control, Iraquis revolted
- The revolt was difficult to putdown, they had to relay on aerial bombardment and use of poison gas.
Forming Middle Eastern States
How did the British police Iraq?
British Mandate in Iraq
- They would do so in the air
- Key manners:
1) Coercive bombardment of recalcitrant tribe
2) Disaffected communities
3) Urban strikers that remained the most salient feature of imperial policing” (Thomas, p.22) - Intelligence networks continue to exert military power.
Forming Middle Eastern States
What were the dynamics of colonial control?
British Mandate in Iraq: colony vs colonizer
- “Colonial tax collection, identity checks, military obligation, and police record keeping were tailored to the requirements of the colonial power, not those of the subject population.”
Forming Middle Eastern States
What was the British budget in Iraq?
British Mandate of Iraq
- Colonial budgets were intended to cover the costs of maintaining control over local populations
- They were not allocated to improve local peoples’ lives
Forming Middle Eastern States
How did the British control such a large territory?
British Mandate in Iraq
- Colonial powers developed extensive intelligence networks drawing upon human, signals, and image intelligence
- Seemingly innocuous data- demographic, economic, sociological- fed into a grand mechanism of colonial control
Forming Middle Eastern States
Why were the strategies used by the British focused on controlling urban areas?
British Mandate in Iraq
1) “British and French colonial threat assessments assumed that political disorders were likely to begin in urban or tribal settings”
2) The colonizers assumed “that the peasant majority in the countryside was easily led into dissent by their own community leaders or, more simply, by a sense of having little to lose.”
3) Colonial intelligence services believed “Muslim subjects were predisposed to religious fanaticism or political extremism”
4) Geographically and ethnically remote areas were harder to subdue
Forming Middle Eastern States
What were the strategies used to contain rural and urban areas? And what were the shortcomings?
British Mandate in Iraq
- Fearful of challenges to their rule, colonial officials used “disproportionate force to contain unrest in the short term, which only heightened the likelihood of more widespread dissent in the long term”
Forming Middle Eastern States
Who were the targets of the strategies? What were the mechanisms of control?
- Colonial intelligence services focused most on “local Communist activists, strike organizers among colonial workers, nationalist groups, and colonial student bodies”
- The French and British also sought to counter German, and later Soviet infiltration among colonial populations
- Both powers established local police forces or hired local agents to control and surveil populations on their behalf, and also brought personnel from other colonies (e.g., British India) to take part
- They also employed local ethnic and religious minorities (e.g., Assyrians, Circassians) to assist with policing and control
The Cold War in the Middle East
Between the end of WWI and WWII many Middle Eastern countries gained independence, what characterized these independences?
- In some instances independence involved rejecting colonial authority and in other instances it involved keeping close ties to the colonizer at the level of government.
The Cold War in the Middle East
What is the Truman Doctrine?
- Written by Geroge Kennan and adopted by the president making it significant
- It was implemented by President Harry Truman in 1947
The Cold War in the Middle East
What were the contents of the Truman Doctrine?
- Involved “containing” the USSR via the “adroit and vigilant application of counter force at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points”
- Like a game of whack-a- mole, wherever communism pop up the United States would get rid of it
- If it resembled communism it was communism
- It is a confrontational stance.
- Containment is fundamental in international politics.
The Cold War in the Middle East
How did the Truman Doctrine emerge?
- It was triggered by the Greek civil war, it featured communist fighting right-wing nationalist threatening capitalist states
The Cold War in the Middle East
What was the call of action of the Truman Doctrine?
- The doctrine called for the US to assume the responsibility of assisting nations struggling to resist communism, lest it spread and cause regional instability.
- This solidified the perception of the globe as a chessboard on which pro and anti-communist forces were constantly at war.
- Britain, in particular, welcomed this US role.
The Cold War in the Middle East
Why is the invasion of Iran an example of the Truman Doctrine in action?
Invasion of Iran
- Because in Iran the USSR had a chance to project its power and both the USSR and the US invaded it as a result.
Here is the overview:
1) Aug 1941: to counter Iranian monarch Reza Shah’s pro-German leanings (world conquest), the USSR and UK jointly invaded Iran.
2) Dec 1943: Wishing to thwart Soviet influence, Churchill and Roosevelt signed the Joint Allied Declaration on Iran; Stalin agreed to guarantee Iran’s future sovereignty. - Soviets would become foes after WWII
- Wanted to avoid Iran becoming a Soviet state
3) The USSR could not convince Iran to grant access to its oilfields. - May 1946: Soviets withdraw from Iran
The Cold War in the Middle East
What characterized the USSR’s foreign policy in Iran?
Invasion of Iran
- Despite its great power, “there were clear limits to the risks that the Soviet Union would take in any confrontation with the US” (Sluglett, p.66).
- The idea that the Soviets were committed to global conquest and that the US had to stop that was false, the Soviets were more cautious in their foreign policy.
The Cold War in the Middle East
What was the significance of the emergence of oil?
- Oil exporters: Iran (1913); Iraq (1928); Bahrain (1932); Saudi Arabia (1938); Kuwait (1946).
- By the mid to late 1940s, US oil companies controlled at least 42% of oil in the region.
- In later decades, Alegira, Libya, Qatar, also struck oil
- The vast majority of this oil was destined for Western markets.
- The USSR was largely self-sufficient and bought minimal amounts of Middle Eastern oil
- This hunger for Middle Eastern oil and colonial intervention powered the aforementioned 1953
coup d’etat in Iran
The Cold War in the Middle East
What led to the 1953 coup of Iran?
- British government felt insecure about Iranian oil nationalization
- This freaked out the British and Americans, if Iran does it other countries are bound to follow suit.
- The British needed control of Iranian oil.
The Cold War in the Middle East
What characterized Iran’s nationalization of oil efforts?
- Nationalization did not mean that the Iranian government did not want international companies drilling for oil, they just wanted to make sure that taxes were paid and Iran would be given a larger share of the oil being extracted.
- By 1950, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company had in Iran the world’s largest oil refinery, supplying 85% of UK fuel needs.
- Iran wanted 50% of profits; the UK was willing to increase Iran’s share from 17% to 24%; the UK ambassador told Mossadegh Iranians were being “greedy”
The Cold War in the Middle East
Who is Mohammad Mossadegh?
- He was an “incorruptible” by vast sectors of Iran’s population (ruling with Iran’s best interest in heart)
- He was trusted because of his willingness to oversee oil nationalization.
The Cold War in the Middle East
What is the National Iranian Oil Company?
- It is the national oil company established by Mossadegh that involved the British working for it.
The Cold War in the Middle East
Why did the National Iranian Oil Company incite danger for the UK?
- Mossadegh envisioned the industry running at a low level without foreign management.
- The security of the free world is dependent on large quantities of oil from Middle Eastern sources.
- If the attitude in Iran spreads to Saudi Arabia or Iraq, the whole structure may break down along with our ability to defend ourselves.
- The danger of buying oil produced on a reduced scale has, therefore, potentialities with dangerous repercussions” (Cable to US State Department, 1951)
The Cold War in the Middle East
What was the UKs response/strategy to prevent nationalization?
- The UK was unwilling to accept any compromise short of Mossadegh’s overthrow (Abrahamian)
- A UK Foreign Office analysis declared: “In terms of class warfare, the movement led by Musaddiq was a revolutionary drive of the three lower classes against the upper class and the British who were identified with that class”
- The British determined they could not allow Mossadegh to nationalize Iran’s oil, and could not dissuade him from doing so; overthrowing him was their only option
The Coup Agaisnt Mossadegh: Iran 1953
What led up to the coup?
- Feb.1952: US and UK intelligence officials discuss possibility of persuading Iranian generals to overthrow Mossadegh but he was too popular.
- Jul.1952: Riots in the streets force Shah to safeguard Mossadegh’s position and give him control over the War Ministry
- Nov.1952: Eisenhower elected in US; State Sec. J.F. Dulles and CIA Director Allen Dulles have personal stake in law firm representing Anglo-Iranian Oil Co.
CIA and British MI6 went to work planning a coup
The Coup Agaisnt Mossadegh: Iran 1953
What were the tactics used by the UK to solidify the coup?
- The BBC waged a propaganda campaign via its Persian-language broadcast; disinformation spread through Western press to vilify Mossadegh
The Coup Agaisnt Mossadegh: Iran 1953
What were the mechanisms of the coup?
- British had cultivated a network of informants within Iranian security forces, including key generals, also among journalists and local authorities
- CIA organized the kidnapping, torture, and murder of Mossadegh’s police chief, spreading instability and fear within security forces CIA, MI6 spread rumours of secret Mossadegh alliance with USSR
The Coup Agaisnt Mossadegh: Iran 1953
How did the UK turn Iran against Mossadegh?
- CIA, MI6 spread rumours of secret Mossadegh alliance with USSR
The Coup Agaisnt Mossadegh: Iran 1953
How did the coup end?
- After initial setbacks, on August 19, Iranian forces converged on Presidential home and arrested Mossadegh; 300 were killed in skirmishes with loyalists
The Coup Agaisnt Mossadegh: Iran 1953
What role did the CIA play in the coup?
- The CIA “had a direct role in kidnappings, assassinations, torture, and mass street killings” (Abrahamian, p.187)
The Coup Agaisnt Mossadegh: Iran 1953
What was the aftermath of the coup?
- A new consortium of international oil companies was established: 40% of controlling shares went to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
- Mossadegh, key ministers, and thousands of loyalists and Tudeh members were arrested; Mossadegh himself got a light sentence; Tudeh party members were tortured, and some executed
The Coup Agaisnt Mossadegh: Iran 1953
What characterized the new consortium of international oil companies?
- It was renamed British Petroleum; 14% to its ally Royal Shell (thus giving majority vote to the British)
40% to a group of American firms; and the remaining 6% went to the French state company - The consortium was to give 50% of profits to Iran, but “gained full control over management, refining, production, and distribution of oil” (Abrahamian, p.211)
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
In what way did the United States and the Soviets clash in terms of ideology in the Middle East?
- The main clash was between communism and capitalism.
- It was not a one way street with superpowers transferring their particular preference or ideologies to local people but it included political leanings that existed at the local level which connected or clashed with the superpowers.
- In Egypt for example, they may have supported/sided with the Soviets if they did not adopt communist ideologies in government.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What characterized Communism in the Middle East?
- Communist and leftist movements in the Middle East enjoyed early freedom in the early/mid 1940s, but later faced repression.
- An egalitarian and benevolent state which would look after its citizens from cradle to grave.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What characterized the US ideology in the Middle East?
- US policy was initially ambiguous during the decolonization process.
- Ideologically, the US offered its vision of modernity:
- It would be a disinterested senior partner assisting nations struggling to become members of the ‘free world’
- There to help countries along but were not expecting in return that countries would align themselves with the United States.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
Why was the Cold War state centric?
- The Cold War focused on state power.
- Middle Eastern states gained independence before or during the Cold War.
- The Cold War was state-centric, even weaker states had relatively centralized governmental power.
- Competing for silent states, Great Powers offered Third World countries economic and military aid, reinforcing governments.
- After the Cold War, many states (Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen) weakened.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
Which countries aligned with the Soviets vs the US?
- Third World states joined East Bloc vs West Blic rivalry, bolstering their international trading.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What role did ideology play in the Cold War?
- The role of ideology changed over the course of the Cold War.
- Supower relations with Middle Eastern states were complex, not simply imperialist or neo-imperialist.
- To some extent, they can be described as Patron/Client relations.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What are Patron/Client relaitons?
- Clients can switch patrons, or have multiple patrons, and play super powers off of eachother. Example Egypt, Iraq.
- Some Middle East states very skillfully played one superpower off against each “other”
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What is an arm race? And how did it take place during the Cold War?
- Refers to two or more states trying to outdo each other in military sophistication and size.
- The Cold War is renowned for the superpowers’ nuclear arms race.
- Yet superpowers also supplied ever more sophisticated weaponry to their client states, especially in the Middle East.
- Superpowers and regional rivals competed alike.
Wars broke out repeatedly.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What characterized the arms race in the Middle East?
- Great powers sold arms to the Middle East in great quantities.
- Regional insecurity and chronic conflict led to the emergence of arms races which contributed to further instability.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What are key examples of arms races in the Middle East?
- Key early arms sales included: Czechslovk sale to Israel 1948, Soviet sale to Syria 1954, Czechslovak sale to Egypt 1955, French sales to Israel 1955-62.
- In 1968, the US and USSR began an arms race within the Arab-Israeli conflict.
- Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia used oil revenue to make massive weapons purchases.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What is the Baghdad Pact?
- The main purpose of the Baghdad Pact was to prevent communist incursions and foster peace in the Middle East.
- It was renamed CENTO (Central Treaty Organization)
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What happeneds to CENTO?
- 1955: the US promotes the Baghdad PACT (aka Central Treaty Organization, or CENTO).
- CENTO members: Iraq, Iran, Turley, the UK and Pakistan
- 1958: Revolution in Iraq topples monarchy; secular Arab nationalist Ba’ath government takes over; Iraq withdraws from CENTO in 1959.
- CENTO useless; dissolved in 1979.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
Who did the Soviets support? And what were they supporting?
- The Soviets backed national liberation movements in Syria, Egypt, Iraq that pursued the “non-capitalist road”
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What is the United Arab Republic?
- Formed between 1958-61, Egypt and Syria merged allowing for the USSR to get closer to Iraq.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
How did the coup in Iraq impact superpower relations?
- The 1963 coup overthrew the Iraqi regime leaving thousands of communists and leftists killed which angered Soviets.
- In April 9, 1972: Iraq and the Soviet Union sign an historic agreement allowing the USSR to sell Iraq’s cutting edge-weaponry and assist Iraq with oil infrastructure.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What was the outcome of the oil boom between 1973-82?
-Iraq would buy Western goods, including French weapons.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
How did the Iran-Iraq War influence the US foregin policy in the Middle East?
- 1980: Iraq invaded Iran, aiming to seize borderlands; war drags on.
- Shaken by Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the US sells Iraq modern weapons, including chemical and biological weapons technology.
- Meanwhile, the Iranian government cracked down on local communists, rejected the Soviets.
- By late 1980s, the USSR and USA supported Iraq and Iran.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What is a common misconception about client-states relations?
- The common understanding of Cold War dynamics is that superpowers controlled client states.
- In fact, client states often had more autonomy
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What characterized the Soviet-Syrian relationship?
Golan
- Despite Soviet power and arms sales, Syria often charted an independent path that did not align with Soviet wishes.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What is an example of the strained Soviet-Syrian relationship?
- 1970: against Soviet advice- and despite the threat of US intervention- Syria intervened militarily in Joran as fighting broke out between Jordanian governments and Palestinian militants.
- Syrian President Assad refused to sign a Friendship and Cooperation Treaty with Moscow, although Egypt (1971) and Iraq (1972) did so.
Superpower-client relations in the Cold War
What did the Soviets hope to get with their relationship with Syria?
- The USSR sought to promote the Syrian Communist party, creating tensions with governing Arab Nationalist Ba’ath party
- Soviets sought to discourage Syria and Egypt from launching the Oct. 1973 war vs. Israel, but supplied them with much weaponry
- The Soviets also tried to pressure Syria into diplomatic negotiations with Israel.
Gender and IR in the Middle East
What is an informal economy?
- It involves “informal-sector activities’ such as ‘work’ that is illicit or illicit, that is outside of formal market transactions (Peterson).
- They constitute more than one half of all economic output and equal 75% of the gross domestic product of some countries.
Gender and IR in the Middle East
Who participates in an informal economy?
- Women do most informal work, but this is largely under-theorized.
Gender and IR in the Middle East
How are informal economies shaped?
- “Structural hierarchies” shape markets based on factors such as class, gender, and other forms of identity.
Gender and IR in the Middle East
When do informal economies emerge?
- Informal-sector activities are especially prevalent in wartime conditions, which overturn typical social and economic mechanisms.
Gender and IR in the Middle East
What are the three types of informal economies?
1) Coping Economies
2) Combat economies
3) Criminal economies
Gender and IR in the Middle East
What are coping economies?
- Based on sheer survival needs that motivate individuals and families to facilitate social reproduction.
Gender and IR in the Middle East
What are combat economies?
- Military objectives motivate individuals and groups to fund and facilitate insurgent activities.
Gender and IR in the Middle East
What are criminal economies?
- As regulatory mechanisms break down, profit motives generate an economy that is transnational and gendered.
Gender and IR in the Middle East
What is the relationship between women and the informal economy?
- Women “are held responsible, and typically hold themselves responsible, for family well being and household management,” which often requires participation in the informal economy during poverty or crisis.
Gender and IR in the Middle East
What are the types of informal activities run by women?
1) Communal sharing
2) Petty trade
3) Waged work
4) Redistribution through family networks.
5) Street vending
6) Labour migration
7) Volunteer work
8) Farm labour
9) Remittances
10) Subsistence agriculture
11) Home based business
Informal Economies the Case of Iraq 1980-90s
What was occuring in Iraq during the 1980-90s?
- There was the Iraq and Iran War
- Iraq’s 1990 invasion and annexation of Kuwait
- The subsequent UN embargo and first Gulf War against Iraq in 1991
- International sanctions until the second invasion in 2003 “had devastating and long-term effects”
- Ultimately, Iraq went “from a relatively prosperous literate and ‘modernizing’ country” under Saddam Hussein’s centralized dictatorship, “Iraq deteriorated dramatically as a result of wars and international sanctions”
Informal Economies the Case of Iraq 1980-90s
What are the gendered dimensions of Iraqui international relations?
- During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War “the glorification of a militarised masculinity coincided with the glorification of the Iraqi mother” (Peterson, p.45)
- Post-1991, international sanctions impoverished Iraq
Informal Economies the Case of Iraq 1980-90s
What was the consequence of international sanctions on Iraq?
- It imposed food scarcity, malnutrition, and disease, adding a “burden of responsibility” for women
- International sanctions upended the class- and social orders in Iraq: the black market boomed, the professional class declined, and poverty worsened
- Schooling, literacy rates, and infrastructure declined or collapsed, bearing a disproportionate impact on women
Informal Economies the Case of Iraq 1980-90s
What were the impacts of the 2003 US-UK invasion?
- After 2003 invasion, instability and economic insecurity became the norm
- Occupying forces failed to protect Iraq’s population and were often themselves implicated in violence
Informal Economies the Case of Iraq 1980-90s
What were the consequences of failed protection in Iraq during the UK invasion?
- “Years after the invasion, occupying forces have failed to ensure safe water, adequate electricity and reliable communications” (Peterson, p.47)
- Women had to cease participating in the informal economy out of fear
- Saddam’s predictable violence replaced by chaos: “Fear of abduction, rape, and murder has kept women confined to their homes” (Peterson, p.47)
Informal Economies the Case of Iraq 1980-90s
What were the consequences of the post-2003 insurgency on gender?
- There are key gender dimensions to post-2003 insurgency and criminality
- Post-invasion, unemployment remains high for men and women, but men are much more likely to turn to combat activities
- “Feminist studies indicate that many men respond to perceptions of ‘failed manhood’
Informal Economies the Case of Iraq 1980-90s
What is failed manhood?
- It is a mindset that is exemplified by unemployment, inability to provide for the household, impotence in the face of occupying forces, and so on – by displaying aggressive behaviors”
- This is especially evident in contexts where the state and social order have broken down
Informal Economies the Case of Iraq 1980-90s
What is the difference between pre vs post 2003 gendered violence in Iraq?
- Pre-2003: Women in Iraq enjoyed freedom of movement and faced no systemic threats regarding their mobility
- Post 2003: a ‘climate of fear’
Informal Economies the Case of Iraq 1980-90s
What is the climate of fear?
- Armed groups have targeted women’s organizations and family-planning facilities, and threatened and killed women political leaders and women’s rights activists
- Women are the victims of kidnapping, street violence and ‘honour killings’
Informal Economies the Case of Iraq 1980-90s
How was the Iraqi government altered post-2003? What are the impacts on women?
- Iraqi government and occupying forces have failed to provide security; religious conservatism and sectarian violence has grown
- Power is now increasingly exercised by local forces and especially ‘clan leaders, militias, armed groups, religious parties and political strongmen’ who rarely favour the empowerment of women
Informal Economies the Case of Iraq 1980-90s
How is the Case of Iraq a causal chain?
1) International intervention (1991 sanctions and 2003 invasion)
2) Systemic instability and insecurity in Iraq
3) Gendered economic and social instability and insecurity.
Gender and IR in the Middle East
What are the impacts on targetting women?
- Attacks on and murders of women leaders send a powerful signal to all women and “eliminate individual women who have much-needed leadership experience and intellectual resources”
- The intimidation institutionalizes a return to women’s domesticity and re-inscribes patriarchal ideologies and identities
- Younger women who have had fewer educational opportunities may ‘willingly’ submit to subjugation and reduced public-sphere aspirations
Gender and IR in the Middle East
What is the common blame for gender inequality in the Middle East?
- Islam, is widely blamed for gender inequality.
Gender and IR in the Middle East
What is the actual cause of gender inequality in the Middle East?
- Oil
Gender and IR in the Middle East
How does oil cause gender inequality?
- Oil production affects gender relations by reducing the number of women in the workforce
Gender and IR in the Middle East
How does a reduction of women in the workforce impact women?
- It leads to higher fertility rates, less education for girls, and less influence for women in the family
- It makes women less likely to mobilize politically, less likely to lobby for expanded rights, less female representation in government
- Leads to “atypically patriarchal” government and society
Gender and IR in the Middle East
How can women gain rights? And what is a common misconception about gaining rights?
- Workforce participation.
- Not all forms of economic growth foster gender equality
Gender and IR in the Middle East
How does women participating in the workforce increase rights?
- Women’s participation in the workforce also boosts their economic and social power, enables them to share information and organize
- This holds true even as women often participate in poorly- remunerated factory jobs, and as they are paid less than men for similar work
- When families know that girls will be able to earn their own income they invest in health and education for girls
Gender and IR in the Middle East
What is Dutch Disease?
- It suggests that oil production crowds out other forms of economic activity, harms other sectors, via two mechanisms.
Gender and IR in the Middle East
What are the two mechanisms where the Dutch Disease operates?
1) Oil sales increase foreign exchange rate, boosting value of local currency and increasing demand for foreign-made goods at the expense of local manufacturing
2) Oil wealth increases “demand for non-tradable goods (things that cannot be imported, like construction and retail services) drawing labor away from the tradable goods sector and hence raising its production costs
Gender and IR in the Middle East
How does the Dutch Disease impact women?
- Since women are largely confined to jobs in export-oriented industries and agriculture, a decline in those sectors will lead to a decline in women’s workforce participation and women’s wages
- Meanwhile, men’s wages will grow in the non-traded sectors that favor men’s labour
- Oil-rich countries also often import cheap labour, supplanting women in the labour force
Gender and IR in the Middle East
What was a gendered consequence of the booming oil markets?
- The booming oil markets of the 1970s reduced female labor force participation in countries with high levels of occupational segregation (like Algeria, Angola, Gabon, Nigeria, and Oman), but not in countries with lower segregation (Ross, p.110)
The Politics of Identity in Middle Eastern IR
Why is nation building complicated in the Middle East?
- Nation-building in the Middle East is complicated by incongruence between the state and sub-state and supra-state identities
- The idea of the nation state in the Middle East had little historical tradition on which to build.
The Politics of Identity in Middle Eastern IR
What is the difference between sub-state and supra-state identities?
- The strongest identifications are often sub-state units (e.g. cities, tribes, religious sects) or the larger Islamic umma
The Politics of Identity in Middle Eastern IR
What role does identity play in nation building and perception of foreign policy?
- Identity both shaped perceptions of interest in foreign policy making and is an instrument in their pursuit.
