International Relations and how Iran has effected the Middle East - Research Paper Example

Situated in the Persian Gulf, Iran remains the region’s strongest military power and hosts the region’s largest population. Moreover, Iran is the Persian Gulf’s “main country straddling the strategic Strait of Hormuz through which” more than half of the world’s oil passes (Ramazini, 1979, p. 821). The Persian Gulf’s strategic position and Iran’s prominent political and geographical position within, makes Iran a very important actor in both regional and international security.

The Persian Gulf joins Africa, Europe and Asia and connected to the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf also connects the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Moreover, Islam was born in the Persian Gulf and thus the culture of the Persian Gulf is profoundly characteristic of Islamic values (Sajedi, 2009). It is therefore hardly surprising that the Persian Gulf has come to be known as the “center of the Muslim world” (Sajedi, 2009, p. 77). Stagedi (2009) informs that: Owing to its strategic location, the Persian Gulf region has been the center of attention for traders, businessmen and big powers for a long time.

The commercial interests, through shipment of goods from the Persona Gulf to the outside world and vice versa have made this region so important for big powers that wars have been fought over its control (p. 77). From 1700 hundreds forward, the Persian Gulf has been the focus of political and commercial competition among maritime factions in the West. When oil was discovered in the 1900s in the Persian Gulf, oil became another fortified the interest in the region. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Cold War saw competition between the US and the Soviet Union for power in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East generally.

Until 1991 a climate of fear was perpetuated in the region over