Middle East

The term Middle East has no objective basis. It is an idea of late-19th-century imperial geography used to define a group of countries that stretch around the Mediterranean. Depending on which countries are included, the Middle East is said to encompass the region of modern-day Turkey; the eastern Mediterranean (Levant) on some accounts extending to Iran and Afghanistan; down into the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula; and along the southern shores of the Mediterranean. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank treat the Middle East and north Africa as a single region. The Middle East incorporates the area once seen as the cradle of civilization, the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley. In terms of medieval religious geography, this area was seen by Christians, Jews, and Muslims as the center of the world. But by the late 19th century, European industrialization and expansion made it seem an intermediate “middle Eastern” area separating Europe from the East. The continued use of this term reflects the ongoing importance of geopolitical considerations and the way that they are sunk into popular consciousness. The Middle East is often thought to be synonymous with the Arab world, but the definition of an Arab is itself contested. The region is often associated with Islam, but there are substantial Islamic minorities in some states, and most of the world's Muslims do not live in the Middle East.

Politically, much of the area of the Middle East was once part of the Ottoman Empire. The modern-day states emerged from imperial conflicts, and especially Anglo-French influence as the Ottoman Empire collapsed. The secret Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 formalized Anglo-French spheres of influence, and in 1917 the British made the Balfour Declaration, viewing with favor a national home of the Jewish people in Palestine. In this division, too, the Kurds must not be forgotten as they emerged the losers as the world's largest stateless people.

After World War II, Anglo-French influence gradually gave way to U.S. influence. This reflected a continuation of older strategic concerns over the area, the Cold War, and, most importantly, the role of the area as an oil-producing region. These concerns led to U.S. support for local forces—states, princes, families, and the military—that might help it achieve its aims. But it also [Page 1128]accounts for continuing hostility to Western intervention and pressure. History plays an important role in the area and helps to explain the continuing tensions. Some sensitivity to the complexity of the region and even the term Middle East itself is therefore necessary. Often the term carries a negative connotation, as when David Ben-Gurion said that “the state of Israel is a part of the Middle East only in geography.”

Standard accounts of business in the Middle East point to positive factors encouraging trade and investment. These include the geographical ease of access, cultural uniformities (the Arab language, Islam), pressures to emulate Western consumption practices including the worst aspects of environmental degradation, public sector demand, and so on. Against these must be set more negative issues.

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