Greater Middle East Explained

Greater Middle East

The Greater Middle East is a geopolitical term introduced in March 2004 in a paper published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as part of the United States' preparatory work for the Group of Eight summit of June 2004. The paper presented a proposal for sweeping change in the way the West deals with the Middle East and North Africa.[1] [2] It also denotes a vaguely defined region encompassing the Arab world, along with Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, and sometimes the Caucasus and Central Asia.[3] [4] [5]

Adam Garfinkle of the Foreign Policy Research Institute defined the Greater Middle East as the MENA region together with the Caucasus and Central Asia.[6]

The future of the Greater Middle East has sometimes been referred to as the "new Middle East", first so by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who presented the second-term Bush administration's vision for the region's future in June 2006 in Dubai. Rice said would be achieved through "constructive chaos", a phrase she repeated a few weeks later during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert when the 2006 Lebanon War had broken out; the meaning of this phrase and the Bush administration's vision have been much debated since.[7] [8] [9] The efforts to achieve this new Middle East are sometimes called "The Great Middle East Project".[10] [11]

Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski stated that a "political awakening" is taking place in this region which may be an indicator of the multipolar world that is now developing. He alluded to the Greater Middle East as the "Global Balkans", and as a control lever on an area he refers to as Eurasia.[12] According to Andrew Bacevich's book America's War for the Greater Middle East (2016), this region is the theater for a series of conflicts dating back to 1980, which heralded the start of the Iran–Iraq War.

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Notes and References

  1. Perthes, V., 2004, America's "Greater Middle East" and Europe: Key Issues for Dialogue, Middle East Policy, Volume XI, No.3, Pages 85–97.
  2. Ottaway, Marina & Carothers, Thomas (2004-03-29), The Greater Middle East Initiative: Off to a False Start, Policy Brief, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 29, Pages 1–7
  3. Web site: The Greater Middle East 2025 - Foreign Policy Research Institute. 2024-04-18. www.fpri.org. en-US.
  4. Web site: The Greater Middle East Initiative. 2021-05-31. Al Jazeera. en. 7 April 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220407060811/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2004/5/20/the-greater-middle-east-initiative. live.
  5. Stewart. Dona J.. 2005. The Greater Middle East and Reform in the Bush Administration's Ideological Imagination. Geographical Review. 95. 3. 400–424. 0016-7428.
  6. Web site: The Greater Middle East 2025. Adam. Garfinkle. Foreign Policy Research Institute. December 1, 1999. 22 January 2021. 7 April 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220407060811/https://www.fpri.org/article/1999/12/the-greater-middle-east-2025/. live.
  7. Web site: 2019-08-30. Silence, Please! A New Middle East Is in the Making. Inter Press Service. Baher. Kamal. December 14, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20190830090424/http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/12/silence-please-a-new-middle-east-is-in-the-making/. 30 August 2019. live.
  8. Yadgar. Yaacov. A Myth of Peace: 'The Vision of the New Middle East' and Its Transformations in the Israeli Political and Public Spheres. Journal of Peace Research. July 2016. 43. 3. 297–312. 10.1177/0022343306063933. 144802783.
  9. News: The 'New Middle East' and its 'constructive chaos'. Jumana Al Tamimi. Gulf News. 10 August 2013. 20 January 2021. 13 February 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210213215345/https://gulfnews.com/world/americas/the-new-middle-east-and-its-constructive-chaos-1.1218872. live.
  10. Web site: "Great Middle East Project" Conference by Prof. Dr. Mahir Kaynak and Ast.Prof. Dr. Emin Gürses in SAU. 3 October 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20180122071832/http://www.sakarya.edu.tr/en/?nid=237. 22 January 2018. dead.
  11. Web site: Turkish Emek Political Parties. 3 October 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20140502230715/http://www.emep.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=155:-the-greater-middle-east-project-the-new-name-for-occupation-and-re-division&catid=47:articles&Itemid=98. 2 May 2014. live.
  12. Zbigniew Brzezinski, "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geo-strategic Imperatives" Cited in (Nazemroaya, 2006).

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