Gpf is nonideological, analyzes the world and forecasts the future using geopolitics. Thearab uprisings and the geopolitics of the middle east. Geopolitical codes in davutoglus views toward the middle east articles insight turkey winter 2014 volume 16, number 1 critical geopolitics, which is a relatively new field of study for scholars of international relations, seeks to understand and. This is an excerpt from regional security in the middle east. Elf was created after the second world war for the very same reason. The finnish institute of international affairs kruunuvuorenkatu 4 fi00160 helsinki tel. Global geopolitics and political economy net idn indepthnews by j nastranis united nations idn fifty years after israel occupied the west bank and gaza strip, it continues to control these areas through repression, institutionalized. The so called heart of the middle east is located at the eastern and south eastern side of the mediterranean sea.
Apr 10, 2014 this report evaluates the energy and geopolitical shifts that have arisen from the production of shale gas and light tight oil in the united states. Is there a middle east the evolution of a geopolitical. Geopolitics is the study of how things like a countrys land, climate, and natural resources all affect its government and economy. In this session, students will learn about major external actorsinternational actors who influence and affect geopolitics in the regional middle east. The geopolitics of history geopolitics is a muchoverused term. As competition continues for a vital resource, the strategic calculations of major and minor countries alike place prominent emphasis on the pumping, refining, transport, sale and use of petroleum products. There will be some retaliatory attack, sometime in the future, somewhere in the middle east region, limited in scope, not war. Religious freedom, the minority question, and geopolitics.
Religious freedom, the minority question, and geopolitics in the middle east volume 54 issue 2 saba mahmood skip to main content accessibility help we use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Jan 01, 2002 the east southern parts of the former ussrtranscaucasus and central asia are not geopolitically separated from the middle east, which is itself in a state of e volution, which depends on continuity, commonality and growing connectedness of its elements. This shift in paradigm is especially preeminent in the middle east, where constant political and social changes affect the balance of power and the entire geopolitics of the region. Is the idea of the middle east simply a geopolitical construct conceived by the west to serve particular strategic and economic interestsor can we identify geographical, historical, cultural, and political patterns to indicate some sort of internal coherence to this label. We cannot isolate russia on matter x, because we need its support on iran and syria, is a sentence anyone dealing with russia has heard from multiple european and american officials. The second wave followed world war ii, when the european colonial order crumbled. Syrian relations, syrias continuing interference in. To most contemporary observers of international politics, the term raises at least a whiff of realpolitik.
The caspian sea countries ultimate aim in this geopolitics should be to reach cooperation and partnership, rather than competition and rivalry. The return of geopolitical risk thomas gomart france appreciated the risk it was running in depending on the us and uk for oil that the decision was taken to found the compagnie francaise des petroles cfp, the forerunner of total. The middle east shall remain vitally important because of its geography that straddles important global supply routes, its energy resources, and its complex mix of politics, ethnicity and religion that contributes to instability within and outside the region. It introduces fresh perspectives on the key issues of debate in the late twentieth century concerning discourse, power, gender and political economy. Jun 19, 2018 the shanghai cooperation organization sco summit from june 910 went largely along expected lines. The economic, demographic, energy and security situation in the middle east april 21, 1998 this report covers strategic interests in the middle east, broader trends on the economic development of the mena region, the failure of the middle east to. Edit text and pdf images with acrobat dc adobe acrobat dc. New energy, new geopolitics center for strategic and. In fact, a middle east peace conference took place in madrid in 1991, paving the way for arabisraeli negotiations leading to the later oslo agreement, under the strong leadership of the.
The middle east in many ways is a new theater for china. Shifting global politics and the middle east marc lynch and amaney jamal. Security policy in ethiopia and somalia, 19531991 pittsburgh. The geopolitics of the horn of africa lefebvre 1992. The geopolitics of the caspian is very broad theme in term of geography, players. Middle east, but potentially in the wider theatre of russianeuropean relations too. June 2017 the geopolitics of renewable energy meghan osullivan indra overland. Any disaster can be a powerful tool of exposing the weakness of anybody, or any government. Characterising this rivalry in the purely sectarian terms of a deeprooted sunnishia enmity is simplistic and fails to understand the.
The shia crescent and middle east geopolitics foreign. Factsheet air task force middle east brochure defensie. Regional and external actors in middle eastern geopolitics usa, russia, turkey, etc. Geography, resources and the geopolitics of middle east. The implications of the syrian war for new regional orders. Eu policies do not fit the mould of classical geopolitics, but they do reflect a distinctive way of thinking about strategic interests. Egypts geostrategic power emanates from its central location in the heart of the middle east serving as a bridge between africa, asia, and mediterranean europe. The first wave began with the collapse of the ottoman empire after world war i. The pdf file can be easily downloaded to your computer, enabling you to view it offline at your convenience. In the middle east, the strategic significance of turkey is in part a function of its location as a land bridge between europe and asia, and as a land barrier across the only outlet of the black sea. Jun 30, 2017 margaret thatcher conference on security, guildhall london, 27 june 2017 chair.
This paper seeks to place the current kurdish problem in the broader context of regional relations and geopolitics in the middle east and to discuss its implications for the united states. Syria, turkey, israel and a greater middle east energy war by f. Geopolitics of the islam world and world leadership in the. Inside geopolitics covering international news, trends. Middle eastern notes and anticipations as befits a word constructed from two parts, geopolitics is a locution with more than one meaning. Common interests in the middle east a stable middle east, which will enable a steady global oil price and allow unhampered outflow of oil from mena is critical for sustaining u. The middle east during the war from military campaigns to hunting locusts, from an arab revolt to the armenian genocide. Since oil prices started a plunge around the emergence of the isis as a new threat in syria and iraq, however, geopolitical factors have apparently lost. The geopolitics of gas and oil cartels and the changing middle east 4 conflicts and protect energy assets from coercive leverage or to prevent a disruption of oil flows too large to permit a quick and lowcost market adjustment. For most of its modern history, the middle east has been besieged by international conflicts.
A lot of discussions this week looking at the middle east have centered on the role of two outside global powers. Fishers book of the same name published in 1978, anderson provides a comprehensive account of the physical geography. Conflict economies in the middle east and north africa. Middle east will spread far beyond the region, as is already visible elsewhere even in the most developed countries of the world as they struggle to reinsert some modicum of balance and stability in the shattered confidence of their own peoples.
The geopolitics of postsoviet russia and the middle east. Geopolitical futures gpf was founded in 2015 by george friedman, international strategist and author of the next 100 years. Students participating in the geopolitics of the new middle east course will learn about multifaced diplomacy by a combination of theory and practice. The indian pm narendra modi, met the chinese president, xi jinping, on the sidelines of the summit. The causes of return to conflict and the geopolitical. His writings have appeared in the national interest, harvard iranmatters, middle east journal, middle east policy, atlantic council, the hill, and international affairs among others. As with world war ii and world war i, this one as well would be launched to expand what david rockefeller and george h. Middle east from which he can threaten natos southern flank directly, project power into the mediterranean and the arab world, and generally recreate russias aura as a global power. Turkey in the geopolitics of natural gas summary this paper outlines the role of turkey as an increasingly more important natural gas consuming country while at the same time strategically located as a transit country between major consuming areas in the eu and suppliers in the middle east, central asia and russia. The report then posits several possible energy futures that could emerge from the unconventionals revolution. The new middle east, isis and the 6th revolt against the west murat yesiltas and tuncay kardas 8. Greater middle east in american foreign policy 23 this region.
The middle east was directly involved in world war i, and so it was affected by the war in all aspects of life. Since the early nineteenth century, european powers have competed to colonise the middle east s territories in an attempt to control its natural resource and geostrategic location. Lefebvre is assistant professor in the department of political science at the university of connecticut at stamford. Please consider supporting our website by making a contribution so that we can continue to bring you more exclusive content. The return to conflict needs to be debated and analysed on its causes and. Such overuse ignores the fact that geopolitics as a method of. The fight against the islamic state appears to be going well. A mixed feeling, something in between physical fear and aristocratic despice is inevitable, when one lives in fragile venice and a menacing brutal monster enters the canal grande, offering the narrow strees and the delicate mosaics that pave its churches and palaces to the newly enriched masses of global tourism. Goals amid regional change1 uprisings and political change in the arab world challenge many of the assumptions that have long informed u. Critique of the new century not just another geopolitics site. Geography and geopolitics ewan anderson middle east is a lively and muchneeded update of a wellrespected work. From jamaat altawhid waljihad to the islamic state recep tayyip gurler and omer behram ozdemir 7. Sir peter westmacott former ambassador to france, turkey, and the usa panel. Shifting geopolitics in the arab world 19452017 professor bichara khader louvain university louvainlaneuve, belgium introduction almost a century after the end the ottoman domination of the middle east and north africa, and after many decades of independence from western colonial rule, the arab region is far from being peaceful.
Russias return to the middle east nicu popescu and stanislav secrieru the us department of defenses 1984 annual assessment of soviet military power was particularly concerned with the rise of moscows influence in the middle east and beyond. To discuss this, the article will first introduce the theoretical background and analytical tools. Geopolitics, international relations, and the future of. While the term has achieved common usage, no one studying the region has yet addressed whether this conceptualization. Nowhere is this trend more visible than in the middle east, where violence and destruction will spillover throughout the neighbourhood in 2019. He may have more complicated objectives in mind as well, but the state department should be able at least to recognize these. The conventional view is that the eu cannot do and resolutely recoils from geopolitics.
Stability and instability in the middle east center for. The middle east conflicta brief background global issues. The military action, which was used by the turkish military, conveniently, to establish a tenkilometer wide. The geopolitics of oil and gas pipelines in the middle east. Koichiro tanaka geopolitical events have so far shaken the world economy beyond spatial and temporal domains, as have those in the middle east. It begins by assessing how much the unconventional energy trend has already impacted energy, geopolitics, and national security. Conflict economies in the middle east and north africa report. He is the author of numerous books and articles on politics in the middle east and north africa, as well as irans foreign and defense policies. Religion and geopolitics in iranian foreign policy the. It is just as clear that the changes have not yet played themselves out.
Some participants stated that the new alliance is not likely to last over the longer term. Cia pentagon helicopters caught transporting daesh terrorists again february 22, 2018 geopolitics101 8 comments the usled coalition is often accused of supporting terrorist groups in syria, including organizing safe passage and extraction from encirclements and hot zones. What really matters in the middle east geopolitical futures. The eu s geopolitical crossroads in the middle east. University of pittsburgh press, pitt series in policy and institutional studies, 1991. Cia pentagon helicopters caught transporting daesh terrorists. The case of the eritreanethiopian border conflict is, thus, matter of interest, which has been neglected on the international board. The middle east reference web site provides a lot of reference material including the following chronological sections on middle eastern policies in general. Writers, observers, and practitioners of international politics frequently invoke the term to describe, explain, or analyze specific foreign policy issues and problems. Second, it will consider the factors that led to the birth of the socalled broader middle east initiative as a case that reveals a new geopolitical imagination in american.
Syria, turkey, israel and a greater middle east energy war. Thearab uprisings and the geopolitics of the middle east bassel f. Middle east geopolitics has transformed from a system organized around and against a usmanaged security architecture into a multipolar system lacking norms, institutions, or balancing mechanisms to constrain. It p rovides not only access to resources to the other export route through the red sea to. Kerry brown is professor at the university of sydney and associate fellow at chatham house. Syllabus geopolitics of the new middle east summer2019. Economics and international relations in jordan and the middle east in this session, students will examine future economic actors in the future o f the middle east and jordan in the context of international relations. The rise of sacred political space in the middle east 6. Authors endorse the overall direction and content of this working paper.
Geopolitics and democracy in the middle east 7 benedetta berti is kreitman fellow at ben gurion university and fellow at the institute for national security studies. The norwegian institute for defence studies has agreed to re issue this essay, which was first published in the series distinguished speakers in political geography by the royal military college of canada in march 2001 as, geopolitics and the new middle east isbn 1896354262. We value fair and balanced reporting but also understand the importance of context and analysis. Jawan 1 introduction this research is an introductory work concerning the geopolitics of the islam world and the world leadership. Typeyournamehere typeunitordepartmenthere how national. Geopolitical inventions and practices of security pinar bilgin, bilkent university abstract contesting those approaches that present the middle east as a region that best fits the realist view of international politics, this article submits that critical approaches are relevant to this part of the world as well. Saudi arabia and iran, as key power brokers in the middle east, continue to couch their bilateral relations in antagonistic terms as they chafe against each other in a battle for influence in the region. Alexander shumilin, russias diplomacy in the middle east. Salloukh the contest between saudi arabia and iran played out in lebanon, the west bank and gaza strip, postwar iraq and, to a lesser extent, yemen and bahrain, has shaped the geopolitics of the region since the 2003 us invasion and occupation of iraq. To this end both of them resorted to geopolitics employing their own advantages. A scarcity of fresh water and a small population density limit saudi arabias defensive capabilities. Aaron stein, the new director of fpris middle east program and a.
A restive eastern province holds a majority of the kingdoms reserves and makes the country vulnerable to invasion from the north or the persian gulf. Russian diplomatic effort that accompanied it, the middle east has become a key testing. On july 9, iraqi prime minister haider alabadi declared victory in mosul after the city was finally retaken. The european union s eu policies in the middle east have been implicitly, not overtly geopolitical. Edward burke is associate fellow at fride and phd candidate at university of st. The list below documents some of the ways pdf files have made it difficult or. Yet geopolitics and the global energy economy are both changing. However, in the aftermath of hurricane harvey, and while the mainstream media is developing its own story along precooked up racial narratives to continually destroy their flavor of the season, donald trump, the people of texas are doing what normal human beings do, i. This was later picked up by then egyptian president hosni mubarak who said, in an interview with alarabiya, that shias in iraq and across the middle east are more loyal to iran not to the countries they are living in. In this first session of geopolitics with granieri for 2019, we are pleased to introduce and feature a conversation with dr. The geopolitics of water and oil in turkey throughout history, few nations have been as successful in leveraging their geographic location as turkey. Inside geopolitics offers a unique look at foreign affairs with a focus on facts and brevity. Middle east islamic countries is looking at this writing more like the early onset of a world war iii, one that some nato members hint is expected to last decades.
Middle east has 56% of worlds oil it can be argued that the invasion of iraq in 2003 was partly to establish us presence in a world that is characterised by the looming threat of peak oil klare whoever controls the persian gulf oil controls the world economy shows the need to prevent a new great game from occurring by. Use adobe acrobat reader version 10 or higher for the best experience. Vertical contagion is a phenomenon of the countrylevel civil wars morphing into regionallevel conflicts engulfing iran, saudi arabia, turkey, and israel, where interest in a stable middle east give way to competition for regional dominance. In 2004, jordans king abdullah ii used the term crescent to warn against the expansion of iranian influence in the middle east. Petroleum politics have been an increasingly important aspect of diplomacy since the rise of the petroleum industry in the middle east in the early 20th century. Contents about the authors 7 acknowledgements 8 abbreviations 9 introduction kristina kausch 11 part i. East west pipelines is an important infrastructure project for the transportation of saudi raw materials from the e ast of the country to the west.
Cross border tribal ties also expose the kingdom to unrest in the south on the border with yemen. In recent years, russia has tried to tap its large energy resource endowments to reassert its place. Cold war world, the domain of geopolitics now touches upon some of the most hotly debated issues of our time, including global environmental degradation, ethnonationalism and postmodernism. Mapping geopolitical shifts, regional order and domestic transformations 2 working papers no. Lebanese domestic politics, and its tendency to play a. The effects of the arrangements in the middle east have become references for central asia ns in assessing the wester noriented advises and prom ises. Middle east have become diversified since the 1970s, geopolitical priority for the palestine was overshadowed by other compelling issues. Policy congressional research service 1 enduring u. Middle east and north africa regional architecture. The us will not do so in iran, and irans options are a war and blockade, which is unwinnable for them, or b continued less than war harassment of us assets and allies.
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