Where exactly is the Middle East? In June 2006 at the height of the Anglo-American sponsored Israeli siege of Lebanon, the U.S. Secretary of State and the Israeli Prime Minister heralded the introduction and conceptualization of the term “New Middle East”, which was introduced by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in replacement of the older and more imposing term, the “Greater Middle East” -advocated earlier by the Bush administration. Indeed within the same month, Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters, a retired colonel of the U.S. National War Academy, drew an enlightening picture of this “New Middle East” and had it published in the Armed Forces Journal. The map (right) is his work, which was complemented with the sub title: “Blood Borders: How a Better Middle East would Look”. (Nazemroaya, 2006) In fact, this is probably a good example as to why people living outside the vague sphere of the Middle East, are never quite sure where it exactly stands. With the borders being constantly changed by the world’s ‘superpowers’, a precise and globally acknowledged geopolitical description of its borders seems improbable. On the other hand, many people would refer to this area as the Arab World, a term I personally -as well as many others living in this region- are not exactly fond of. This group of countries put together for imperialistic purposes is a patchwork of communities with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds; therefore, naming this bundle of semi-independent countries ‘the Arab World’ is unjust to the Israelis, the Lebanese, the Persians, and the Egyptians. Although the Lebanese and Egyptians acknowledge Arabic as one of their official languages, many refuse to be stereotyped as Arabs
based on ancestral and religious grounds. Whereas, the Israelis and the Persians neither share Arabic roots nor language with the others. This issue has been reason for major conflict in the region and its origin could be traced back to the ideology of Pan-Arabism, which was initiated in 1915 as a response against the oppression of Ottoman Empire. “At present, many Arabs have suspended their belief in the Arab nation, and now openly doubt whether there is a collective Arab mission. Those recently swept up by Islamic activism prefer to think of themselves first and foremost as Muslims, and do so without apology. At times, their lexicon has turned “the Arabs” into a derogatory label, implying wastefulness, incompetence, and subservience. Other Arabs plainly prefer to be known as Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians, Moroccans — citizens of over twenty independent states, each with its own flag and own interests. Some have even taken to referring to themselves as Middle Easterners, in anticipation of an Arab-Israeli peace and a new regional order of cooperation modeled on Europe.” (Kramer, 1993) Hence, for the sake of clarity in this research proposal, we are conforming to the traditional Eurocentric terminology‘the Middle East’, first published in September1902 in the National Review by Alfred Mahan, a United States Navy flag officer. The Middle East is a territory covering 16 countries and states in northeastern Africa and southwestern Asia. The countries are: Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the West Bank/ Gaza Strip, and Yemen. (Adelson, 1995)
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