Europes Attitude in the Middle East - Essay Example

Europe’s Attitude in the Middle East The undemocratic, politically instable situations and a number of social and economic issues have been prevailing in the Middle East today. The region is confronting with issues regarding stability, security, Islamism, and migration, according to many analysts and opinion makers. These issues are not focused to address European and American interests rather to point out the upcoming trends in demographic and social characteristics. People have now demanded more than what they have been getting in terms of democracy and equal opportunities, in short change. They want now corruption, nepotism and all the ill wills of the societies to be halted. Importance of connections with the rest of the world and a sense of fell of proud for being citizens to their countries have been recognized by people. This can show a picture of wrong policies that have been pursued based on historic evidences which often neglected the perspectives of modernization and change (Meral 2011). This paper analyses the issues prevailing in the Middle East today and importance of such issues to the United States. It is also argued hereby whether the United States’ policy agenda will address the Middle East issues in favor of the US interests, and what role can Europe play in order to take advantage of social and economic opportunities. All these issues will help to have an idea of future of the Middle East in terms of stability and democracy. The United States’ dominance in the Middle East and North Africa is not a new phenomenon. It has been determined by examining that the United States has been the unrivaled power in the region since the end of the cold War. Today the Arabs are becoming more independent which has caused the situation of power of the United States in the region to change as that was before. The evidence of the changing situation in Middle East can be provided by Egypt's decision to establish relations with Iran and Hamas which cannot even be altered by the United States. A new democratic Arab world is soon to be emerged now. The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt have been the most peaceful in the Middle East region. There are other examples of this kind also such as an upholding rebellion in Yemen, an insurgence against Muammar Gaddafi's dictator rule in Libya and a serial of protestations in Syria. Almost nobody could have foreseen the changes to come. Good evidence has been provided from the current circumstances that these situations will continue to boil up in the Middle East and may take more months or even years to get settled down. The United States, for more than the past 10 years, is not willing and capable enough to maintain its status and dominance in the Middle East. This is because of the recognized fact that President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama’s administrations, together with the incompetent backing of the United States for Arab dictators, had engendered a core anti-American ultra terrorist crusade. The United States has been supporting Arab regimes more specifically and tentatively. However, the US has faced two major wars along with the financial upheavals and a deep recession in the US economy, which has caused the United States to become incapable to cope up with the situations prevailing in the Middle East. This has also resulted in conflicts in the Arab world. Now the time has allowed such forces which led disputes in the region to vanish through revolutions. Though, some rich countries and sheikhdoms in Arab world have yet not brought that change in their regimes, but apart from those almost all the societies the Middle East have started to deal with the present and upcoming change. Some governments in the region have even tried to suppress the protests in their countries, for instance in Bahrain. The Bahrain government succeeded to control the raising protests by its people but it hugely cost them to shut down such dissents, and even the impacts of government acts are not long lasting, endangering long-term stability of the country. Other examples of countries facing such protestations from the people include Libya, Syria and Yemen. These countries probably will undertake a huge change in their societies regardless of the current positions of the countries. A good example of an unfeigned pre-emptive reform is the current situation in Morocco, where the King has agreed to cede many of powers to the elected Prime Minister. A desired and positive outcome will present a powerful framework to stimulate the Gulf monarchies and Jordan to imitate the same model. The importance of these reforms for the United States can be judged by considering the 1975 time when the United States had four major allies namely Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in the Middle East. Such alliances have become troublesome today for every state engaged in the relationships, also showing the United States dominance in the region. Today, the United States strongly need to make effective alliances with a more advanced and democratic Middle East. Such relationships have to be ensured with reality and stability for long term. It will be significantly difficult but critically important for the United States. It is seen that the United States will continue to include the Middle East issues in its foreign policy agenda because of strategic importance of the region (Zakaria, 2011). Europe had also been connected with the Middle East, but these associations have been meaningless and unclear. European leaders have appraised the modified and audacious uprising of Arabs. The reason behind the evaluation by the European leaders may be to show their little but concerned endeavors of supporting the people of the Middle East. European governments have also been competing against one another for their interests in the region. Though, there is no example to provide the evidence of effective and stable relations between European and the Middle East countries. But it would not be wrong to say that European leaders had dealings with shady leaders of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Europe and the Middle East regions have been in tough and almost destroyed involvement with each other and this will continue to be the same until and unless the EU develops a proactive and sturdy foreign policy that is essentially multi-layered and integrated with other policies of the countries. Now, European countries should seek to relinquish the outlook of being omitted from updated and favorable political and economic opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa. For these policies to be effective and contributed the desired outcomes for the Europe’s interests, the EU has not only to compete with an impregnable American existence in the region, but also with Turkey and Iran who have always been extremely diplomatic and taking economic special advantage by creating intense influence on the other countries of the Middle East. The Europe has to confront potent and substantial civil societies and domestic public opinion. It is still a big question mark whether the Europe will be successful in marking its potentiality to be stable and create strong impact on the Middle East countries. At present, the Europe is not capable enough to gain advantage of potential social and economic opportunities from penetrating in the region. But, the strength of the European power can evidence to believe that the Europe can bring revolutions and change in policy framework to get strategically benefitted. It can then compete with all the threats present in the Middle East (Meral 2011). All the above discussed issues cannot lead to draw any conclusion for the future of the Middle East. Though, it should be enough to speak out that the future of the current prevailing circumstances in terms of change and protestations for undemocratic and instable regimes in the Middle East is unknown to everyone. But what one can do is hope for the best. Works Cited Meral, Ziya. “Europe’s attitude in the Middle East” Public Service Europe. 2011 [Available Online ] cited 7 Dec 2011 from: Zakaria, Fareed. “A New Middle East” Time Magazine U.S. 2011 [Available Online ] cited 7 Dec 2011 from: Read More