The Current Affairs of the Middle East - Essay Example

Since the Gulf War, the Middle East has been a powder keg for conflict and development. Not only has this been stimulated by the involvement of the United States in the affairs of Iraq, but it has also resulted in other countries such as Egypt and Tunisia. There are multiple reasons as to why each country is starting to have political struggles, but it has something to do with the fact that globalization is the key force now that powers our world. For a very long time, the Middle East was governed by religion and tradition which has influenced politics. What is being realized now is that every country in the world is interconnected in some way and in order to promote greater economic prosperity and justice for all, reformation of the Middle Eastern governments and economies is a necessity.

First, there has been an uprising for political reform in Egypt. For the longest time, in the Middle East, the Egyptian government had existed as one of the more stable governments that the United States could interact with. Like so, the governments of Sudan, Lebanon, and Tunisia are on the precipice as the citizens have begun to protest the traditional governments in order for reform to take place. The Arab state which has existed since biblical times is beginning to collapse. The reason for the collapse has been the fact that there is a civil war in many of these countries. Countries are against other countries. Different ethnicities are fighting each other, and even different sects of Islam ie the Sunni and Shiites, are struggling to maintain control over each other's respective political agendas. There is also the fact that the United States and other Western countries have intervened in the affairs of the Middle East since the beginning of the Cold War. The United States had been backing up states such as Israel and Egypt in order to keep stability within the region. Because the United States and other countries intervened, there were problems that were created and unsolved.

I think that there are many different problems that have been leading to the collapse of the Arab countries in the Middle East. The first is the area itself: Mesopotamia. That area of the world has seen conflict all across time starting with the conquering of Alexander the Great, the Ottoman Empire, the Crusades, and now insurgents of radical Islamic terrorists. Violence has been a part of these people’s lives since the beginning and the political arena has been closely tied to their religion. The United States learned long ago that religion and politics should not mix ie Separation of Church and State. In addition, the conflict isn’t solely just based on countries fighting other countries; they are fighting with each other due to their clashing ideas of what Islam should be.

There is also the problem of the influence which the world has put on the Middle East. Like Africa, the Middle East was a highly colonized region during the time when Europe had empires. This, on some level, made the Arab people subservient to the will of these Western cultures, not to mention the clash of Christianity and Islam which had been happening since the Crusades. The amount of Western influence and ideas of capitalism and democracy are what the people want, however, the traditional religion and government believe that this strays away from the fundamentals of Islam. The people want globalization and westernization to come.

Lastly, the biggest thing has been the United States' involvement in the Middle East. Many people claim that we are there to gain access to oil and other resources. Others believe we went to Iraq to liberate the people and bring democracy which could hopefully stabilize the region. In my opinion, we should not be there regardless. The history and ways of the region have been the same for thousands of years. This means that in order to reverse that kind of violence and animosity towards themselves and towards Westernization, it is going to take thousands of more years. It is inevitable that at some level, the Middle East will see a change in economy due to the continuing intertwining of the world economy and globalization; however, they want to keep their practices and religion as the main guiding viewpoint in society. The clash is between what the people want and what the government is dictating, not much unlike why the American Revolution occurred. You cannot bring change to the people; you have to let the people change the government for them.