The Middle East has dominated US foreign policy concerns over the past decades. The region became a key area of concern following World War Two due to the emergence and conflicts over the State of Israel, the Cold War competition for global influence fought in proxy wars there, and the economic and strategic importance of the region's oil reserves. US policy in the region has been challenging and has led to complex consequences. Here we will look at America in the Middle East, its historic interests, roles, and impact.
America in the Middle East History - Defining the Region
The Middle East is a transcontinental region, including countries from Asia, Africa, and Europe. The region is enclosed by the Black and Caspian seas, the Mediterranean, and the Indian Ocean.
Fig. 1 - Middle East Map
Debating the term "Middle East."
This term differentiates the Middle East from the Far East and eastern Asia. While commonly used, it is quite Eurocentric. A more accurate geographical term is Southwest Asia.
Particularly important is the region on the Arabian Peninsula around the Persian Gulf, which includes the countries of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran.
Three monotheistic religions hold the region sacred; bearing such importance to so many people across the globe, the impact of conflicts there have greatly affected international relations in the second half of the 20th century.
Characteristics of the Region
There is considerable diversity. While Arabs make up the majority of the ethnic populations, Persians, Turks, and Kurds are other large ethnic groups within the Middle East and there are dozens of smaller ones.
The dominant religion in the region is Islam, with both sects, the Sunni and Shia present there. There are also large populations of Jews and Christians.
Sunni and Shia Islam
These are the two main branches of Islam.
- Sunni Islam, or Sunnis, makes up the overwhelming majority of the Muslims in the world.
- Mostly concentrated in the Arabian Peninsula.
- Shia Islam, or Shi'ites, are the minority, comprising less than 20% of Muslims worldwide.
- The majority of Iran's population, and the slight majority in Iraq.
The historic division dates to a split over who should have been the successor to Muhammad as the leader of the Muslim community. The two groups largely coexist but have also come into conflict:
Sunnis and Shi'ites clashed in Iraq as Sunnis, who had enjoyed a privileged position under Saddam Hussein, feared majority Shi'ite rule in a democratic Iraq.
Likewise, one grievance against the Syrian government in recent uprisings is that it is controlled by a small Shia minority.
Fig. 2 - The Grand Mosque in Mecca, the most sacred site in Islam, located in Saudi Arabia.
The region's most well-known economic resource is petroleum, having the largest reserves of oil in the world. Saudi Arabia has the largest proven reserves in the region, and Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Libya, and Qatar also have significantly large reserves.
The single country with the largest oil reserves is actually Venezuela with approximately 300 billion barrels. Saudi Arabia, second in the world, has about 267 billion barrels.
Oil became vital for military use by WWII and afterward. Ever more important for consumers too, with the automobile and plastics becoming ubiquitous parts of everyday life in many more wealthy countries by the 1960s. This made the region increasingly important for geopolitics as well.
Fig. 3 - Barrels of oil in a town port in Saudi Arabia in the 1960s.
Legacy of Colonialism in the Middle East
Much of the Middle East was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire until the 20th century. As early as 1901, a British company acquired the right to drill for oil in Iran. British and Russian troops even occupied Iran during World War One to protect the oil reserves.
With the ending of the Ottoman Empire after WWI, European influence increased drastically. The British and French-administered much of the former Ottoman lands.
Sykes-Picot, Balfour Declaration, and the League of Nations Mandates
During WWI, the British encouraged Arabs to rise against Ottoman Rule. They also made a secret agreement with France, known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, to divide much of the northern Arabian Peninsula between them. And supported the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine in the Balfour Declaration.
Saudi Arabia became sovereign, but other parts were de facto British and French colonies, known as mandates, under the League of Nations. In theory, they were meant to oversee their evolving into independent states; in practice, they exercised colonial control.
- Britain received control over the mandates of Iraq and Palestine.
- France over the mandate of Syria and Lebanon.
America in the Middle East Interest and the Cold War
As the superpower rivalry of the Cold War between the US and USSR increased, the region became a metaphorical battlefield for influence.
America's interest in the Middle East was therefore not simply about acquiring reliable access to oil, but also about stopping the region from becoming a Soviet sphere of influence.
Perhaps ironically, no government in the Middle East ever adopted full-fledged American-style democratic capitalism or Soviet-style communism. Leaders, in fact, often cleverly used the Cold War rivalry to obtain economic and military aid from the two superpowers even if they did not fully ideologically align with them.
America in the Middle East Role
America's role in the Middle East shifted somewhat over time, although it has always been guided by the desire to acquire allies while maintaining access to the region's oil reserves.
Mossadegh Coup
The US's first major intervention in the Middle East was its role in a coup that removed the Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, a strong nationalist leader who wanted to assert Iranian sovereignty and promote economic equality.
He nationalized Iran's oil and instituted a number of pro-labor economic reforms. Although, not a communist, US officials, saw Mossadegh as a possible opening for communism to gain influence.
The recently created CIA helped plan a coup to remove Mossadegh from power and increase the power of the Iranian monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The US provided military aid to the Shah's regime, and the oil was put under the control of a conglomerate dominated by the US and Britain.
Fig. 4 - Mossadegh on trial after the coup.
Arab Nationalism and the Suez Crisis
Egyptian leader Gamel Abdel Nasser nationalized the British-French Suez Canal in 1956. Nasser had trodden a 3rd path between the US and USSR, maintaining relations with both. After buying arms from the Soviet bloc, the US and British withdrew economic aid for the Aswan Dam project. Nasser hoped to use the income from the canal to pay for it.
The British and French responded by planning a secret operation with Israel whereby Israel invaded Egypt through the Sinai Peninsula as a way to justify the French and British deploying to protect the canal. The plan backfired as the US refused to go along out of fear of pushing Nasser into the Soviet bloc.
Nasser became a hero for a budding Arab nationalist movement that sought to assert more sovereignty and resist colonialism. The Suez Crisis and the Mossadegh coup are good examples of how the US had to navigate a complicated course in the Middle East of trying to gain influence without alienating the people of the region.
Relations with Saudi Arabia
America and Saudi Arabia have long enjoyed friendly relations. After the kingdom's formation after World War One, it and the US began friendly relations. These relations became closer during WWII, when the US agreed to protect Saudi oil fields.
This established the two key dynamics of the relationship: oil and security. In 1951, an agreement was signed that shared oil profits between a US and Saudi company, and the US pledged to provide the kingdom security for its oil and from the spread of communist influence from the Soviet Union, selling arms and providing training for its military.
Fig. 5 - Eisenhower and Nixon with King Saud of Saudi Arabia in 1957.
The late 1950s and early 1960s saw some bumps in the US-Saudi relationship, with Saudi Arabia temporarily aligning itself with the Arab nationalist movement led by Nasser. However, friendly relations resumed after a rift between the Saudis and Egypt in 1962.
Relations became rocky again in the early 1970s due to conflict over the status of Israel and US support for it. However, they were soon friendly again, with the US providing lots of military aid since the mid-1970s.
Israel Emerges as a Major US Ally
Israel emerged after a failed proposal to divide the British mandate of Palestine, which led to a war in 1948. Additional major conflicts followed in 1956, 1967, and 1973. In the 1963 war, Israel occupied the territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The US had at first tried to walk an even line in relations with Israel, even condemning it along with Britain and France during the 1956 Suez Crisis. However, with Nasser and many of the other Arab nationalist leaders looking to the USSR for economic and military aid in the late 1950s and 60s, the US increasingly saw Israel as an important strategic ally and buffer to Soviet influence in the region.
Therefore, they began supplying massive amounts of military aid to Israel in the 1960s, which largely continues to the present day. The US has also traditionally attempted to serve as a peace broker in the region, to varying degrees of success.
Fig. 6 - A US-made tank delivered to Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
America in the Middle East Impact
The US's involvement in the Middle East has had a large impact, both on the trajectory of these countries' destinies and the ongoing relationship between them and the US.
US Policy Towards the Middle East: A Cycle of Actions and Consequences
The best way to characterize American involvement in the Middle East is a cycle of actions, consequences of those actions, and then further actions that lead to further consequences, drawing the US to be more heavily involved.
1979 Iranian Revolution
After the Mossadegh coup, the US enthusiastically supported the government of the Shah, who introduced business-friendly policies that led to economic development but also inequality and secularization of Iranian society.
A popular uprising against the Shah in 1979 led to the establishment of a nationalist government headed by the cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The government took a strong anti-US stance.
US Involvement in Iraq
Conflict soon ensued between Iran and neighboring Iraq, and the two countries fought a long and bloody war from 1980 to 1988. During this conflict, the US and the West heavily supported Iraq with arms and monetary aid.
However, in 1990, Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait and was quickly condemned by the US and other Western powers. They launched a military intervention against Iraq in 1991 in the First Persian Gulf War.
War on Terror
More recent times have seen the rise of Islamist movements, some moderate but others developed into extremist terrorist groups, including Al-Queda, responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Fig. 7 - Photo of the burning World Trade Center towers during the9/11attacks.
Grievances over colonialism's legacy, the US support for Israel, the US support for repressive governments such as the Shah's and the Saudi monarchy along with resentment over more recent US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the War on Terror are one key element of fuel for these violent extremist groups.
America in the Middle East - Key takeaways
- America's involvement in the Middle East before WWWII was limited.
- The importance of oil along with the Cold War were key factors in the US becoming more involved in the Middle East.
- America's role in the Middle East was largely guided by its desire to have allied governments and prevent the spread of Soviet allies and influence in the region.
- The US overthrew an Iranian leader and supported the rule of the Shah, which helped provoke the Iranian Revolution.
- The US became a strong supporter of Israel and has maintained a mostly close relationship with Saudi Arabia.
- Resentment of US actions in the Middle East has contributed to Islamist groups' growing influence, including terrorist groups, which in turn prompted further US intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 21st century.
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