The Strategic Importance of the Middle East
It’s long since the United States of America gets involved in the Middle East. Furthermore, the role of America to the Middle East has grown significantly after the World War. During the early years, the Unites States grew interests towards Asia and pivoted to create trade relations since its cultural ties are so weak and the military power of the Asian region is marginal. The Cold War marked a regime that the Middle East’s supplies of energy and communists made Asia a US-Soviet check board. Thus, in 1990, the US government established its military forces alongside the region to contain Iraq and Iran. During this time, Washington was struggling and tirelessly focused on establishing peace movements between Israel and the Arabic nations.
The contemporary American interests in the Middle East have evolved. It can be categorized into five great establishments. These interests includes; to ensure that oil flows freely across the regions, prevention of proliferation, to fight and eradicate terrorism, maintain the security measures of Israel and to foster democratization. There were times that Iran and Al-Qa’ida incurred threats onto these interests (Jones, 2012). However, the Unites States’ powerful democratic establishment makes it less risk towards these threats. Thus, in attempts to manage the threats, the US has contained the Syrian and Iraq violence as well as weakening the Islam states. It has also re-energized its struggle to establish a peaceful co-existence between Palestine and Israel hence mitigating the constant threats towards its interests.
Since 1945, the US had aspirations to becoming a hegemon more especially during the Cold War. Indeed it became a hegemon in non-Soviet states since the Soviet Union demised the single impediment that was ideal in realizing America’s ambitions to be a hegemonic state. Today, America does not hold geopolitical position that is drastically weakened as compared to Britain and France immediately the World War II stopped. In 2018, President Donald Trump authorized an attack on the Iranian grounds with a pledge to impose more harmful and harsher sanctions towards it (Tillman, 1982). Furthermore, it threatened the countries that had an involvement with Iran in business issues. Therefore, this is an indication that the US strongly poses policies (Anti-Iranian) and a plan to extend its hegemonic power into the Middle East.
Secularization has transformed the American foreign policies towards the Middle East and Israel in general. Therefore, it has solicited a negative secularism policy due to the fear of politically active region groups. That is, if secularism is healthy and distinguishes authorities of religion and politics, then it is ideal for democracy and Pope Benedict XVI regarded this kind of secularism as positive. On the contrary, negative secularism presumes religions as irrational, violent and prone to extinction in the coming future. That is to mean that it has contribution towards democracy. Secularization has transformed the American foreign policies because it equates the religious participation in politics to takeovers and democratic subversion (Tillman, 1982). In 2010, the American government illustrated its attitudes towards secularization by crushing protests in Hama. Similarly, the Cold War also illustrated the negative secularization whereby undergirding the policies of America in the Middle East. America intended to get a reliable ally who would help them work against the Soviet, however, the allies were more religious and had regimes established on nationalism and modernization.
References
Jones, T. C. (2012). America, oil, and war in the Middle East. The Journal of American History, 99(1), 208-218.
Tillman, S. P. (1982). The United States in the Middle East: Interests and Obstacles (Vol. 82). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.