US FOREIGN POLICY AND THE MIDDLE EAST

4 Periods of US FP towards the ME 1) The Ottoman Empire collapsed in the wake of

the defeat it suffered during the WWI. The US consequently intervened to limit the imperialist ambitions of both the French and British.

2) In the aftermath of the WWII, America was increasingly drawn into the ME for two reasons : 1) Replace the rapidly declining power of the British Emp 2) Counter the military and ideological influence of the SU.

3) The end of the CW has seen American foreign policy dominated by the ME, especially since the 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq.

4) Post-Iraq , " zoom-out" from the ME ?

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS , US FP AND THE ME

• Realism stresses the instability of the international

system with states maximizing their power in competition with each other. This helps scholars understand the ME as dominated by interstate war and conflict.

• Marxism perceives the international system as structured by hierarchy not anarchy. US FP in the region is designed to defend its economic and political dominance and access to oil.

• Constructivism stress the role that ideas and norms play in fp making. US interaction with the ME is thus structured by its own self-image and what policy makers see as the "backwardness" of Middle Eastern societies.

THE US, THE COLD WAR, AND THE ME-1

• The CW acted as the dominant issue shaping the US relations with the ME. However, seeing the region simply as an arena for a global struggle had profound unintended consequences.

• The CW meant that ideologies originating from within the region, Islamic radicalism and Arab nationalism, were either seen as tools of Soviet influence of weapons with which to fight Soviet power.

• In 1947, as the CW took hold, President Truman announced his doctrine to meet the challenge of Soviet expansionism in the region.

Suez Crisis (1956)

THE US, THE COLD WAR, AND THE ME-2• The Eisenhower Doctrine of 1957 went further

promising direct military support to any state facing communist aggression. This fueled growing Arab nationalist resentment towards the US.

• President Nixon faced the tension between the regional Arab-Israeli conflict and the CW, when the Soviet-American rivalry in the ME brought the world to the brink of a nuclear confrontation.

• President Carter's support of anti-Soviet forces fighting in Afghanistan inadvertently lent American financial and military aid to Islamic radicals who went on to strike at the USA itself on 9/11.

Donald Rumsfeld -Reagan's Envoy- provided Iraq withchemical & biological weapons ( October,1983)

1993 June: Air assault on Iraq September: Oslo Accords on Middle EastOcotber:18 US military personnel killed in Somalia

1994 April : US forces leave Somalia September : US invasion of Haiti October: North Korean nuclear

agreement 1995 August: US diplomatic initiative in Bosnia

and launched a limited bombing campaign against Bosnian Serb positions. November: Dayton Peace Accords

11 September attacks2001 11 September - Co-ordinated suicide attacks on various

high-profile targets, prompting the US to embark on a ''war on terror'' which includes the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

2001 October - US leads massive campaign of air strikes against Afghanistan and helps opposition forces defeat the Taleban regime and find Saudi-born dissident Osama Bin Laden, who is suspected of masterminding the 11 September attacks.

2001 October - USA Patriot Act approved by the Senate, giving the government greater powers to detain suspected terrorists, eavesdrop on communications and counter money-laundering.

2002 January - State of the Union address: President George W Bush includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea in what he describes as an "axis of evil".

Iraq war2003 March - Missile attacks on Baghdad mark

the start of a US-led campaign to topple the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. US forces advance into central Baghdad in early April.

2003 1 May - President Bush declares that the main part of the war in Iraq is over.

2004 May - Furore over pictures showing the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in US custody.

2004 July - Senate report says US and allies went to war in Iraq on "flawed" information.

Bush second term

2004 2 November - Presidential elections: George W Bush wins a second term.

2006 March - Congress renews the USA Patriot Act, a centrepiece of the

government's fight against terrorism, after months of debate about its impact on

civil liberties. The government agrees to some curbs on information gathering.

2006 November - Democratic Party wins control of the Senate and House of

Representatives in mid-term elections. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld steps

down.

2007 January - President Bush announces a new Iraq strategy; thousands more

US troops will be dispatched to shore up security in Baghdad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnOacP9UW8c

2009 June: Obama delivers speech in Cairo seek a new

beginning between the US and Muslims around the

world.

2011 May - US forces kill Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden

in an operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

2011 December - Last US troops withdraw from Iraq

Constructivist explanations of this relationship focus on empathy generated by the horrors of the Holocaust, the pioneering spirit of Israeli state builders, its democracy, and an affinity between US Christianity and Jews returning to the Holy land.

THE US and ISRAEL – 1

• Throughout the Roosevelt and Truman administrations ( both symphatic to the Jewish

cause), State Department, recognizing the possibility of a Soviet-Arab connection and

the potential Arab restriction on oil supplies to this country, advised against U.S.

intervention on behalf of the Jews.

• At midnight on May 14, 1948, the Provisional Government of Israel proclaimed a new

State of Israel. On that same date, the United States, in the person of President Truman,

recognized the provisional Jewish government as de facto authority of the Jewish state

(de jure recognition was extended on January 31, 1949). The U.S. delegates to the U.N.

and top-ranking State Department officials were angered that Truman released his

recognition statement to the press without notifying them first

• As the CW escalated President Eisenhower became increasingly aware of the damage

America's relations with Israel were causing in the Arab Middle East and attempted to

constrain Israeli foreign policy in the Suez crisis of 1956.

During the Arab-Israeli War of 1967 President Johnson, saw the victory of America's ally Israel over Arab states supported by the Soviet Union as beneficial to US Power.

President Nixon's extended support for Israel in the 1973 war resulted in the Arab oil embargo that quadrupled the world price of oil.

By keeping Israel too strong to be defeated with

Soviet arms, they [President Nixon and his

National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger]

aimed to force the Arabs to accept a settlement

close to Israel’s terms; at the same time, they

positioned the US as the only power which

could theoretically influence Israel to accept a

settlement, thereby seeking to marginalize the

Soviets from Middle East diplomacy.

(Hinnebusch,2002,p.32).

US policy remains focused on maintaining Israel's military superiority in the hope that this will give them the confidence to negotiate a substantive peace deal with both the Palestinians and Syria.

However, it is a debate on whether this approach serves to best American interests in the region.

The US and OIL

• US support of Israel has often been in conflict with its policy of obtaining oil from the Gulf at the lowest possible cost.

• In May 1933 the California Arabian Standard Oil Company, later called the Arab American Company (ARAMCO), had started the exploration in the country with large area to explore

• As the American economy's dependence upon oil increased after 1945, US government policy became concerned with stability of the main oil-producing states in the region.

King Ibn Saud meets with President Franklin D. Roosevelt on board the USS Quincy, after the Yalta Conference in 1945.

In 1953 the US supported a coup in Iran aimed at stopping the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry.

Oil Embargo on the US and Europe (1973) was the largest to US-Saudi relations.

Saudi King Faisal: "America's complete Israel support against the Arabs makes it extremely difficult for us to continue to supply the United States with oil, or even remain friends with the United States"

• In the aftermath of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the USA put together a multinational coalition to liberate Kuwait and stop Saddam Hussein dominating oil supplies from the region.

• The US has repeatedly intervened in the Middle East to secure its economic advantage but its policy cannot be reduced to a focus solely on oil.

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN US FP TOWARDS THE ME ?

• In the wake of 9/11 the Bush doctrine committed the

US to fighting a global war against terror, stopping the

spread of WMD in combination with muscular

promotion of democratization across the ME.

• The US invasion of Iraq resulted in the collapse of the

state, a violent civil war, and tens of thousands of

deaths. It will certainly be viewed as a major defeat of

the US.

• The Obama Doctrine ???

“I have come here to seek a new beginning

between the US and Muslims around the

world; one based upon mutual interest and

mutual respect; and one based upon the truth

that America and Islam are not exclusive, and

need not be in competition. Instead, they

overlap, and share common principles –

principles of justice and progress; tolerance

and the dignity of all human beings.”

The US on Syrian Crisis

2013 September - UN weapons inspectors conclude that chemical weapons were used in an attack on the Ghouta area of Damascus in August that killed about 300 people, but do not explicitly allocate responsibility for the attack.

2013 September 8- US Secretary of State John Kerry says he and Arab League foreign ministers have agreed that the Syrian president's alleged use of chemical weapons crossed a "global red line".

2013 October - President Assad allows international inspectors to begin destroying Syria's chemical weapons on the basis of a US-Russian agreement.

Thanks