Monday 27 January 2020

Unpicking the knots - War and imperialism in the Middle East - Anne Alexander (2002)

Unpicking the knots: War and imperialism in the Middle East
Written By: Anne Alexander
Date: January 2002
Published In LSHG Newsletter Issue 14: Lent 2002  

One of the striking features of the current phase of the crisis in the Middle East and Central Asia has been the re-emergence of the whole vocabulary of late-nineteenth century European imperialism to describe the conflicts of the new millennium. The fact that journalists have dubbed the manoeuvres of the great powers in Afghanistan “The New Great Game”, is only the most obvious example of this process.

The similarity between the imperialism of the nineteenth century and the imperialism of today lies in the shift from a bipolar to a multipolar world. The end of the Cold War has not brought any kind of peace dividend. In reality, it has created further instability as the numerous wars of the last decade show. Vladimir Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg argued that military conflict in a capitalist system is the logical extension of economic competition. The continuing importance of the region’s oil reserves shows that their analysis can also help to explain the current crisis.

The relationship between oil and imperialism shows this process in action, as Anthony Sampson's classic account The Seven Sisters explains. Sampson's book, although written more than twenty years ago, provides a wealth of examples from the Middle East and around the world, of how the interests of state and capital intertwine to protect the most precious commodity on the planet. In particular, his description of the historic alliance between the House of Saud and the United States government provides an accessible commentary to recent developments in the Gulf. Ahmed Rashid's bestseller Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia, shows that the war in Afghanistan is just the most recent extension of the same process.

The history of the Middle East is not however, simply a history of imperialist domination. It is also a history of resistance and liberation. The old empires of Britain and France were forced out of their colonies by popular revolts and armed insurrections which shook the whole region during the 1950s. Hanna Batatu's monumental study of Iraq is a key reference point for understanding the class relationships which underpin the process of national liberation. The mass movements on which the national liberation movements were based were fundamentally shaped by the role of the working class. Joel Benin and Zachary Lockman provide a detailed account of the development of the working class movement in Egypt in their important study Workers on the Nile.

Perry Anderson makes clear, in his excellent survey of the Arab-Israeli conflict in New Left Review, that the liberation of Palestine represents one of the last great struggles of the colonial era. The question of Palestine provides a concrete link between the role of the old imperial powers in the Middle East, Britain and France, and the new, in particular the United States. Zionism: False Messiah by Nathan Weinstock outlines the development of the Zionist movement and its relationship to the imperialism of the day. Noam Chomsky's Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians is essential reading for the background to Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Graham Usher's Palestine in Crisis is a thorough and accessible introduction to the Oslo peace process and its impact on Palestinian society.

The rise of Islamist movements across the Middle East is often treated as some kind of throwback to the supposed medieval values of Islam. In fact, the Islamist movements of region are a product of societies which have been shaped by imperialism and nationalism. The first modern Islamist organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood, was founded in 1929 as a response to the impact of British colonialism in Egypt. Richard Mitchell's important study of the Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers provides a historical perspective on the Islamist movements. Gilles Kepel's Prophet and Pharaoh traces the later development of the Brotherhood and the emergence of the armed Islamist groups such as Islamic Jihad during the 1970s. The Prophet and the Proletariat by Chris Harman discusses the rise of Islamist movements across the Middle East from a Marxist perspective, concentrating on the examples of Iran, Algeria, Sudan and Turkey.

Without an understanding of history, the crisis in the Middle East can appear as little more than irrational tribal hatreds writ large. The history of the past century provides the tools with which we can unpick the knots of the current conflict.


Bibliography

  • Perry Anderson, “Scurrying towards Bethlehem”, New Left Review, July/Aug 2001
  • Hanna Batatu, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq, Princeton University Press, 1989
  • Joel Beinin and Zachary Lockman, Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam and the Egyptian working class 1882 - 1954, Princeton University Press, 1987
  • Noam Chomsky, Fateful Triangle: the United States, Israel and the Palestinians, Pluto, 1999
  • Chris Harman, “The Prophet and the Proletariat”, International Socialism 64 (Autumn 1994)
  • Gilles Kepel, The Prophet and Pharaoh: Muslim Extremism in Egypt, Al-Saqi Books, 1985
  • Richard Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, Oxford, 1969
  • Ahmed Rashid, Taliban: Islam, Oil and the new Great Game in Central Asia, I.B Tauris, 2001
  • John Rees, “Imperialism: Globalisation, the State and War”, International Socialism 93, (Winter 2001)
  • Anthony Sampson, The Seven Sisters, Coronet, 1981
  • Graham Usher, Palestine in Crisis: the Struggle for Peace and Political Independence After Oslo, Pluto, 1997
  • Nathan Weinstock, Zionism: False Messiah, Ink Links, 1979

Further reading

  • V. Lenin, Imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism (Peking Press, 1969) is a good place to start.
  • The Accumulation of Capital, (Monthly Review Press, 1969) by Rosa Luxemburg has a detailed analysis of the debt crisis of the 1880s in Egypt and its role in precipitating imperialist intervention

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