Why is the Middle East so important for the United States?

Résumé du document

The reason why the US finds the Middle-East baffled, it is due to the complexity of both the Middle East and the perception of America which is shaped by a wide range of antagonistic interests that combine, for example, considerations of oil supplies, maintenance of general stability and the protection of strategic interests against the threat of Soviet expansionism.

Extraits

[...] Thus, misperception of the situation in the Middle East is partly due to the American subjective view in a complex global context that motivated strategic moves to rally as many Middle Eastern states as possible. Kennedy understood this well when he proposed the Public Law 480 to help Nasser's Egypt. Conclusion Thus, the general perplexity and misunderstanding of the issues and the particularities of the Middle East mislead the United States' foreign policy in a region that is already problematic on its own. The extreme complexity of the situation in the Middle East itself makes it difficult to view the outcomes at stake. [...]

[...] Why is the Middle East so important for the United States? Introduction In spite of a long-lasting isolationism on the political scene, the one region that has generated the most intense efforts from the United States is unquestionably the Middle East, a region where the active American presence has outlived the Cold War and its strategic rivalries. But as it got increasingly involved in the Middle East, the United States has faced complex geopolitical issues, and it seems that even the most skilled foreign affairs advisors had a hard time defining adequate policies. [...]

[...] Israel is unquestionably considered a democracy among Western powers, and one of the reasons that pushed Truman toward a pro-Israeli position was his support of the Zionist argument according to which Israel would be a bastion of democracy in the Middle East. Yet, Israel's unjust treatment of the Palestinian minority in the occupied territories regularly provokes consternation among Western democracies. The United States thus had to reshape its views in accordance with its obsession with treaties that stated definitive plans in the Middle East and didn't consider the extreme instability in the region. [...]

[...] This is especially true for the Arab-Israeli conflict. Thus, for external observers, and especially for a relatively young country like the United States, which was founded on promises of a bright future forgetful of the past, the weight of historical hostilities is hard to understand. There are many mistaken perceptions that come to the minds of outside observers when considering the Middle East, one of them being that the common heritage of Arab history, culture and language makes the Arab community an extremely united one. [...]

[...] Conflicting and influential interests The United States also finds the Middle East particularly perplexing because of the weight of antagonistic interests. In the case of the Arab- Israeli conflict, it seems that the United States will never be able to achieve a successful policy because they don't really know where the American interest resides. The American domestic perception of that conflict has been divided between two main considerations. On the one hand, the oil interests have been a major part of the American economic involvement in the region, and already in 1947, the American oil companies owned 42 percent of Middle Eastern oil supplies. [...]