US and Russian policies and strategies in the Middle East: Iraq and Syria as a model

Author(s):  
Esraa Aladdin Noori ◽  
Nasser Zain AlAbidine Ahmed

The Russian-American relations have undergone many stages of conflict and competition over cooperation that have left their mark on the international balance of power in the Middle East. The Iraqi and Syrian crises are a detailed development in the Middle East region. The Middle East region has allowed some regional and international conflicts to intensify, with the expansion of the geopolitical circle, which, if applied strategically to the Middle East region, covers the area between Afghanistan and East Asia, From the north to the Maghreb to the west and to the Sudan and the Greater Sahara to the south, its strategic importance will seem clear. It is the main lifeline of the Western world.

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-126
Author(s):  
Reza Bakhtiar Ramadhan

Using the method of discourse analysis and the theory of Balance of Power as a media for analysis of this paper seeks to find out why and how the increase in Iranian military power threatens the hegemony of the United States in the Middle East. Significant increases in Iranian military power are thought to threaten US interests in the Middle East. Post-revolution of Iran under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 has turned this country into a new political and military power. Since then, relations between Iran and the West, especially the United States, are becoming more tense. Iran's policy on nuclear weapons has triggered an arm of race in the Middle East. Even Iran is considered to threaten the stability of the region's security. Especially the security of the United States allies in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia emerged as one of Iran's main opponents in the Middle East region. One vote with a colleague of the United States, the Saudis have always denounced all Iranian political and military policies. Given the enormous importance of the United States in the Middle East, as well as its responsibilities to the security of its allies in the Middle East, various ways in which the United States has secured its hegemony. Like strengthening alliances with its Middle East allies by way of massive military supply of weapons.


It is in moments of great upheaval that societies may best be studied. Today, The North Africa and the Middle East region (MENA) finds itself in the most alarming state since World War I. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle East and North African History is a timely intervention to interrogate the region’s internal dynamics and take stock of its place in world politics. It illuminates afresh dominant historical currents as well as counter-currents that previous accounts have not given their due attention or have failed to notice. Broadly chronological, this volume combines thematic and country-based, multi-disciplinary analysis in order to reconsider half a century of scholarship and to critically examine the defining processes and structures of historical developments from Morocco to Iran and from Turkey to Yemen over the past two centuries.


Author(s):  
Y. Zinin

One of the Arab Spring consequences that shocked Middle East region was an ouster of some autocratic rulers with Libyan leader M. Qaddafi among them. Libya suffered the crash of its state institutes; vacuum of rule has actually emerged. Against this background the country witnessed a starting of destruction processes. They caused systematic crises and conflicts inside new authorities which strongly aggravated since summer of 2014.The article is about to examine turbulent events which resulted in poising of dual power in 2014.The two opposing poles of power emerged in Libya: one -in Tripoli, another – in Tobruk (the East of the country), each with its own parliament, government and military forces.The author analyses the ongoing conflict between these two blocks which had already caused numerous casualties among both military and civil personal. The picture of balance of power is patchy and volant that makes the further course of confrontation between opponents extremely unpredictable.It is hard to expect a hopeful forecast for fastest cession of the conflict and normalizing of common situation in Libya.The author also examines some efforts of the United Nations to play a role of mediator to reconcile opposing sides and to restore the rule of integrated state.


Author(s):  
Bernard Reich ◽  
Sanford R. Silverburg ◽  
David Ettinger

Dating back to biblical times, the area we refer to as the Middle East has, throughout the course of history, defied attempts to precisely define it. Until today, the region’s contours remain shrouded in geographic ambiguity. Through the centuries, the Middle East, or parts thereof, has been variously referred to as “Le Orient,” “Proche Orient,” “Anatolia,” “North Africa,” “the Persian Gulf region,” “Arabian Peninsula,” “the Levant,” “the Fertile Crescent,” “Asia Minor,” “the Maghreb,” “Southwest Asia,” “the Caspian region,” and “Greater Middle East.” Merriam-Webster Geographical Dictionary labels it “an indefinite and unofficial term.” Long before being adopted in common parlance, the term “Middle East” was a Western invention used by military strategists and governments in the 19th and 20th centuries to denote areas to the east of western Europe. As part of the Ottoman Empire, it extended from Algeria in the west to Iraq in the east, parts of Russia and Hungary to the north, and the Arabian Peninsula to the south. The term “Near East,” often used synonymously, was popularized after the dismantlement of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, referring to the area at the hub of Europe, Africa, and Asia that served as a crossroads and bridge among the three continents and to the various states around the eastern areas of the Mediterranean Sea. After World War II, the geographical demarcation of the Middle East included areas at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, as well as Greece, Turkey, North Africa, and Iran, reflecting the region’s strategic and geopolitical significance in the wake of the Cold War. Although scholars of the area continue to differ in their definitions of the region, this bibliography will focus on the core region generally regarded as the Middle East, bounded by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Egypt to the west, and Yemen to the south. It does not include North Africa, the Sudan, or Central Asia. The first section includes a list of General Overviews and introductory works and those on the region’s Geography, History, Politics, Economics, and International Relations. Important related topics such as Petroleum and Energy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict are also treated. In light of recent developments, we have added the “Arab Spring”. The second section is devoted individually to The Countries of the Middle East. Although the emphasis is on contemporary works, classic titles are included as well, in keeping with the authors’ goal to assist researchers in locating the best works on the region.


2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-217
Author(s):  
Michael Bracy ◽  
Najwa Raouda

The demarcation of borders in the Middle East undermined the position of the Shia community in Lebanon. The French and the British agreement on the border between Lebanon and mandatory Palestine in the early 1920s reduced the size of mountainous region of Jabal ʿAmil. Among the Shia, the Jabal ʿAmil was historically known as the area extending from the Awali River in the north down to Acre, Tarshiha, and Safad in the south, and from the Mediterranean in the west to the Hula Lake and up to the Taym, south of the Biqaʾ Valley in the east. In 1924, an area of about 250,000 dunums (an Ottoman unit of land measurement), including several villages and the Hula Lake, was detached from the Jabal ʿAmil and added to mandatory Palestine. This act severely disrupted the socioeconomic life of the region, particularly around Marjaʾyun. Shia anger over the loss of land was reinforced by the fact that in modern Lebanon the Jabal ʿAmil became known simply as “the South,” which the Shia took as an insult to their historical heritage.


2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 82-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raja Shehadeh

In April 2011, Raja Shehadeh visited the United States to promote the U.S. edition of his new book, A Rift in Time: Travels with my Ottoman Uncle (OR Books, 2011). JPS heard several of his presentations, during which he read passages from his book and reflected on its genesis, major themes, and how writing it changed his thinking about the future of the region. In response to our request, he agreed to allow us to compile the typed notes for his various lectures into a single integrated essay, which he later edited and expanded with additional reflections and comments.A London-trained lawyer with numerous cases in Israel's military courts to his credit, Shehadeh first gained prominence as a human rights advocate and cofounder (in 1979) of al-Haq—the West Bank affiliate of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists and the first human rights organization in the occupied territories—and for his legal writings. He has written a number of memoirs, one of which—Palestinian Walks:Forays into a Vanishing Landscape—won the Orwell Prize, Britain's top award for political writing, in 2008.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-221
Author(s):  
Dusan Vudragovic ◽  
Luka Ilic ◽  
Petar Jovanovic ◽  
Slobodan Nickovic ◽  
Aleksandar Bogojevic ◽  
...  

Premature human mortality due to cardiopulmonary disease and lung cancer is found in epidemiological studies to be correlated to increased levels of atmospheric particulate matter. Such negative dust effects on the human mortality in the North Africa - Europe - Middle East region can be successfully studied by the DREAM dust model. However, to assess health effects of dust and its other impacts on the environment, a detailed modelling of the climate for a period of one year in a high-resolution mode is required. We describe here a parallel implementation of the DREAM dust model, the DREAMCLIMATE service, which is optimised for use on the high-performance regional infrastructure provided by the VI-SEEM project. In addition to development and integration of this service, we also present a use-case study of premature mortality due to desert dust in the North Africa - Europe - Middle East region for the year 2005, to demonstrate how the newly deployed service can be used.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 257-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirzad Azad

In spite of her troubled presidency at home and premature, ignominious exit from power, Park Geun-hye made serious attempts to bolster the main direction of the Republic of Korea’s (ROK) foreign policy toward the Middle East. A collaborative drive for accomplishing a new momentous boom was by and large a dominant and recurring theme in the Park government’s overall approach to the region. Park enjoyed both personal motivation as well as politico-economic justifications to push for such arduous yet potentially viable objective. Although the ROK’s yearning for a second boom in the Middle East was not ultimately accomplished under the Park presidency, nonetheless, the very aspiration played a crucial role in either rekindling or initiating policy measures in South Korea’s orientation toward different parts of a greater Middle East region, extending from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to Morocco.


Author(s):  
Mohammed Moazaz Iskandar Al - Hadithi

The Middle East region is of great importance in the strategic realization of regional and international actors. Therefore, the hypothesis that the research tries to prove is that the Middle East region is of great strategic importance due to the set of constituents, whether civilizational, economic or geopolitical. The emergence of different strategic visions, whether regional or international actors in the region.


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