User:Flashshorty/be bold

The colonial era
Middle East during the start of the cold war was still a de facto colonial area formed and

shaped by the world powers that created these nations, but now a new layer of influence was

imposed on the Middle East by the United States and Soviet Union, which militarized and

further polarized the region. The superpowers made generous contributions to the chaos we

see today by interfering and changing the structure of the nations and regimes for the security

of their own needs. This has made the MENA area to one of the most militarized regions of

the world and an increased arms race, which makes Middle East more insecure than ever

(MENA, 2018). But it also important to take note of the problems the region have inherited

from before the Cold War, like the Palestine conflict and the political Islam which both had

great effect on the political and socio-economic development of the region but also the

infectious rivalry by the vast Arabic and Muslim leaders. The Arab spirit and ambition as I

see it has not altered ever since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and that area is still under

severe identity crisis. As king Fasail mentioned to the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace

Conference that his aspirations “is to unite the Arabs eventually into one nation”. The Arab

nations and their independence struggles was conflicting with the spirit and desire set by king

Faisal and the lack of consensus and distrust amongst the Arab leaders is still an issue of

today (King-Crane Commission). The contest of Middle East between Soviet and USA was

because of firstly gain strategic supremacy after the departure of Britain and France, secondly

because of the vast importance and abundance of oil and thirdly because of the mere

ideological differences between the superpowers. I truly believe the Truman Doctrine was

aimed at “willing to help free peoples to maintain their free institutions and their national

integrity against aggressive movements that seek to impose upon them totalitarian regimes”.

But the strategic and importance of Middle East was/is so vast for the security of United

States and their fear of Soviet was two ingredients to severe a risk to risk loosing Middle East.

As USA got more involved and more insecurity parameters was added to the equation, like

the collapse of the Twin pillar security policy, the British departure from Middle East in 1968

and the rise of Baath party in Iraq, highlighted the need for USA to increase their presence in

the region and secure the transfer of oil to international marked unhindered to acceptable

prices and without allowing any nation to gain hegemony to this important resource

(Legrenzi, 2011, p. 41-49).