Research Question

What Are The Effects Of Decolonization In The Middle East? 

In his article contained in in a memorandum by the Colonial Office in 1945, Lord Altrincham, (1998) presented his views regarding the policy advanced by the British government in the Middle East. In the writing, he posits that “as a funnel of communication between the western, eastern and southern peoples of the British Commonwealth…we cannot allow any other Power to dominate and must preserve for ourselves the maximum friendship and goodwill”(p. 158). He goes further to argue that the region was just as important to Britain as South and Central America were to the United States. The prevailing government at the time concurred with his assertions by confirming that indeed the Middle East was a region of fundamental significance to the United Kingdom from a strategic point of view. Towards this end, the region represented a focal point in regards to communication, oil resources, and a critical route to the Indian Ocean and Africa in addition to being a unique offensive base (Hyam, 2006). It is on this background that this research exercise will seek to examine decolonization and its effects in the Middle East.

Specific /Sub Research Questions

            In the years following the end of World War II formal European empires within the Middle East started to unravel (Smith S., 2011). For instance, France retreated from Lebanon and Syria in 1946 following numerous disastrous interactions with local populations. In 1948, the British too pulled out in 1948 and left behind novel Israeli sate, which was created from a large segment of Palestine and the rest from Jordan. In addition, through a sequence of treaties as well agreements, the British retreated from Iraq and Egypt (Thayer, 2007).

While on the one hand European formal empires ostensibly collapsed in the 1950s, former colonial authorities together with the United Sates maintained significant presence within the region writes Porter (2012). Towards this end, the U.S as well as U.K focused on maintaining oil production as such interest  portended added dimensions in regards to being pursued within the wider background of geopolitical strains presented by the rift between the Soviet Union and United States as a result of the Cold War. Undeniably the independence and by extension of decolonization process in regards to the Middle East has been underlined by complexities (Darwin, 2009).

In his consideration of the decolonization  process and associated effects on the middle east, Albert Hourani (20014) note that ”It would be better … to see the history of this period as that of a complex interaction: of the will of ancient and stable societies to reconstitute themselves, preserving what they had of their own while making the necessary changes in order to survive in the modern world increasingly organized on other principles, and where the centers of world power have lain for long, and still lie, outside the Middle East” (Hourani, 2013).

In order to adequately develop specific research questions from the arguments presented above, it is important to endeavor to define as well as understand the process of decolonization within the context of the Middle East (Thayer, 2007). Decolonization refers to the process of undoing constitution where nations establish as well as maintain domination over reliant territories (Smith S., 2011).  In other words, it is the withdrawal by colonial powers from former colonies coupled with the acquisition of political and/or economic autonomy by the said colonies.

However, one must be cognizant  of the fact that decolonization does not only encompass the wide-ranging  removal of  non-indigenous/colonial powers within  geographical spaces as well as institutions in colonized states, but also involves “decolonizing the minds” from the colonizer’s ideologies that were deliberately promoted to make the colonized seem and feel inferior.  The terminology especially refers to the dismantling of colonial powers established before World War I in the years following the end of World War II across the world (Metcalfe, 2006).

According to the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization, the decolonization as an integral process does not afford any alternatives to colonial powers in regards to driving the self-determination process (United Nations, 2015).  However, Burke, (2011) contends that from a practical standpoint, decolonization may encompass either national liberation conflicts or nonviolent revolution by pro-independence assemblages. In addition, the process may involve the intervention of foreign forces mainly from former colonizers or take an intramural approach. Examples of the process and its effects have existed in different historical epochs but the situation in the Middle East is the best exemplar of the role decolonization has played in shaping modern states and global relations (Burke, 2011).

The organization of the decolonization process transformed leadership ideologies in the region, which in turn has encouraged the inhabitants to challenge the continued imperialism after the end of the cold war (Pappé, 2014). The process has thus resulted in major global realignments and the rise of Islam or else Arab Nationalism which have in turn shaped global interactions significantly. Based on this presentation, it the following questions will be critical in understanding the decolonization and its effects in the Middle East.

1. What form did the processes of independence as well as decolonization take in the Middle East?
2. How is the relationship between metropole/ colonizing power and the colony?
3. Has decolonization profoundly affected the ideological, material development, and intellectual of both?
4. How has decolonization influenced the rise of Arab nationalism?

Key Terms

            The key terms that will require clear definitions are decolonization, the Middle East, independence, colonizers, colony and Arab nationalism.

Key Books and Articles

Fattah, K., & Fierke, K. (2009). A Clash of Emotions: The Politics of Humiliation and Political Violence in the Middle East. European Journal of International Relations, 15(1), 67-93.

According to this article, the events following the 9/11 attack many Americans could not understand why the Middle East hated them so much. The authors argue that the answer to this question has been predicated on an array of “clashes” which do not adequately the emotions elicited by the decolonization process in regards to Middle East-Western engagement. Further, the article asserts that different scholars on the matter have indeed underscored the pervasive nature of the discourse concerning humiliation within the region as a result of the decolonization process and its relationship to the increasing militancy as evidenced by the rising number of recruits willing to sacrifice their lives in order to show the increasing need to not only decolonize for political as well as economic reasons. The need to replace western ideology with one relevant to the social and cultural constitution of the inhabitants is key determinant of the process of decolonization within the region.

Metcalfe, B. D. (2006). Exploring cultural dimensions of gender and management in the Middle East. Thunderbird International Business Review, 48(1), 93–107.

This article introduces a new dimension into the discourse of decolonization and its effects within the Middle East. In this regard, it analyses the impacts of decolonization on the region from ma cultural as well as gender perspective. The results of the study conducted in the Oman, Bahrain, and Jordan reveals that indeed the decolonization of underscored the important role women can play in economic development in a region that has constantly treated women as inferior and therefore incapable of making any worthwhile contribution to the development of modern societies. Moreover, the article confirms decolonization in the Middle East has allowed women to advance in management but they still face development as well as career limitations due to fundamental gender roles ascribed by the Arab or else Islamic culture.

Burke, R. (2011). Decolonization and the Evolution of International Human Rights. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.

This book focuses on the evolution of Global Human Rights as an effect of decolonization. Roland Burke therefore examines the dynamic impacts of the decolonization process on the United Nation’s rights program. By drawing upon Arab voices within the global rights discourse, the author demonstrates the significance of decolonization to the Influence of the region considered as part of the third world within the most fundamental battles for universal rights in the U.N. The process has consequently allowed many voices apart from those from the west to be incorporated into an otherwise defensively constructed global interventions disabuse the notion that the post-WWII decolonization process and resultant effects and in this case the evolution of human rights in the world was largely driven by the West or former colonizers together with the United states.

Smith, D. (2014). The State of the Middle East: An Atlas of Conflict and Resolution. New York, NY: Routledge.

This text by Dan smith provides a critical tool for examining as well as understanding the Middle East and the role decolonization has played placing the region at the heart of global politics. As western or rather forma colonizers attempt to redraft the composition of the region through the process of decolonization, the book employs forensic abilities to untangle the historical contexts of a region largely considered the origin of global instability and confrontation from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire to the current epoch largely influenced by decolonization.

Pappé, I. (2014). The Modern Middle East: A Social and Cultural History. London: Routledge.

This book seeks to enhance understanding of contemporary Middle East in regards to the impacts of decolonization on rural, urban, gender as cultural throughout the region vi-sa-vi its economic and political history. The author distances the content of the text from conventional modernizing approaches by focusing on ideological issues presented by the process.

Louis, W. R. (2004). The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism. Clarendon Press.

This book provides a wide-ranging examination of decolonization and its effects in the Middle East by focusing on the rise of Arab Nationalism in light of the post war efforts by Britain to sustain its vision of a global power through the process. The writer argues that through its obligation to liquidate its former colonial empire, Britain focused on developing new relationships within the region as a replacement to India with the intention of stopping the decline of its Empire by establishing on a fresh basis. However, the attempt was eventually destined for failure as it became saddled between anti-British nationalism as well as American anti-colonialism effectively marking the rise of Arab/Islam nationalism in the region.

Most important books and articles

The most important book in understanding the process of decolonization and its associated effects in the Middle East are “The Modern Middle East: A Social and Cultural History” by Smith. D (2014) and “The Modern Middle East: A Social and Cultural History” by Pappé. I (2014). The latter avails a critical tool for scrutinizing as well as understanding the Middle East and the role decolonization has played placing the region at the heart of global politics. As Western or rather former colonizers attempt to redraft the composition of the region through the process of decolonization, the book employs forensic abilities to untangle the historical contexts of a region largely considered the origin of global instability as well as confrontation from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire to the current epoch largely influenced by decolonization.

The second book on the other hand argues decolonization and its effects have had tremendous impacts on rural, urban, gender as cultural throughout the region vi-sa-vi its economic and political history. The author distances the content of the text from conventional modernizing approaches by focusing on ideological issues presented by the process as the most critical aspects of decolonization process within the Middle East.

References

Altrincham, B. (1998). ‘British policy and organization in the Middle East’: memorandum by Lord Altrincham. In M. J. Cohen, & M. Kolinsky, Psychology Press (pp. 158-160). London: Psychology Press.

Burke, R. (2011). Decolonization and the Evolution of International Human Rights. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Darwin, J. (2009). The Empire Project: The Rise and fall of the British World-System. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fattah, K., & Fierke, K. (2009). A Clash of Emotions: The Politics of Humiliation and Political Violence in the Middle East. European Journal of International Relations, 15(1), 67-93.

Hourani, A. (2013). A History of the Arab Peoples: Updated Edition. Faber & Faber.

Hyam, R. (2006). Britain’s Declining Empire: The Road to Decolonization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Louis, W. R. (2004). The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism. Clarendon Press.

Metcalfe, B. D. (2006). Exploring cultural dimensions of gender and management in the Middle East. Thunderbird International Business Review, 48(1), 93–107.

Pappé, I. (2014). The Modern Middle East: A Social and Cultural History. London: Routledge.

Porter, B. (2012). The Lion’s Share: A History of British Imperialism 1850 to the present. Harlow: Pearson.

Smith, D. (2014). The State of the Middle East: An Atlas of Conflict and Resolution. New York, NY: Routledge.

Smith, S. (2011). The Making of a Neo-Colony? Anglo-Kuwaiti Relations in the Era of Decolonization. Middle Eastern Studies, 37, 159-172.

Thayer, C. (2007). The Five Power Defense Arrangements: The Quiet Achiever. Security Challenges, 3(1), 79-96.

United Nations. (2015). Special Committee on Decolonization. Retrieved February 25th, 2016, from United Nations: http://www.un.org/en/decolonization/specialcommittee.shtml