Middle East Upheaval and Terrorism, Application Essay Example

The Middle East has remained a constant well of tension in world geopolitics. Understanding the logic behind this tension and the various political, social and cultural forces that are acting in the region can lead to the potential resolution of these issues.

In this regard, the major sources of danger and instability to the world emanating from the Middle East is perhaps the unresolved Palestinian conflict. The majority of the Muslim world considers the Israeli occupation an injustice, as does the U.N. itself with its recognition of the pre-1967 borders as legitimate. The failure to address this issue creates a geopolitical fault line that extends across the world: Israel and their uncritical support from the United States against the Muslim world, as shown in states such as Iran. However, much of the Muslim world on a political level is allied with Israel, thus creating hostilities between government and people. For example, the former Mubarak regime supported Israel, despite the population’s discontent; the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has also remained an ally and maintained a brutally repressive regime against a majority Muslim population.

At the same time, the Arab Spring is changing the region by introducing new political powers in the Middle East; however it remains questionable if the Arab Spring as a whole can be considered to be a homogeneous phenomenon. Despite the Arab Spring seeing the ousting of long-standing political leaders, such as Qaddafi in Libya and Mubarak in Egypt, the stability in the region appears to be eroding. For example, Libya was one of the only countries in the world during the Qaddafi regime to have zero external debt, thus it was not part of the world economy founded on debt and interest. It appears that with the Arab Spring the Middle East is trying to be synthesized into the free market system by external powers.

Amidst the instabilities of the Arab Spring, the dangers emanating from the Palestinian/Israeli/Iranian conflict may also lead to a wider regional war. Many intellectuals and politics have noted that Palestine is essentially a human rights catastrophe, as Israel has created a segregated and apartheid state much like South Africa. Iran has consistently supported the Palestinian people and has critiqued Israel and the Western colonial politics as a whole, thus creating a legitimate conflict. Being that Iran has been such a constant critic, and is becoming stronger in a military sense, Israel may attack Iran and create a larger scale war to remain as the only significant power in the region.

The threat of Iran in the region has overshadowed the threat from Al Qaida in Western rhetoric, however Al Qaida provides a good example of the malleability of forces operating in the region. Al Qaida’s historical development from 1988 in a sense cannot be separated from its previous historical stages, in which the mujahadeen, among them Osama Bin Laden were supported by the United States in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Al-Qaida changed targets to the United States, above all criticizing the presence of American military in Saudi Arabia, where numerous Muslim holy sites, such as Mecca are contained. The terrorist attacks of Al-Qaida against the United States are thus the result of the perceived U.S. negative treatment of Muslims world-wide, for example, in their support of Israel against Palestine.

Accordingly, the threat of Al-Qaida has largely been overstated by the U.S. government so as to justify an aggressive and expansionist foreign policy. Many of the so-called mujahadeen, for example, are now once again being supported by the U.S. in Syria, as they also supported the mujahadeen against Libya. Hence, Al-Qaida becomes a convenient simultaneous friend/foe for the U.S., depending upon the geopolitical situation.

Hence, it would appear that two solutions are crucial to stabilizing the region: firstly, a resolution of the Palestine-Israel conflict, in so far, as mentioned above, it is the source of tension between the Muslim world and Israel and the U.S. Secondly, Western countries should not play such an aggressive geopolitical strategy in the Middle East, constantly de-stabilizing areas, such as the previously economically debt-free Libya, for its own geopolitical gains.