Download Shifting Sands: Balancing U.S. Interests in the Middle East

Shifting Sands: Balancing
U.S. Interests in the Middle
East
The Choices Program for the 21st
Century, Brown University.
Part One: The Creation of
the Modern Middle East
I. An Historical Overview
 The
Middle East as the cradle of civilization
 Birthplace of Judaism
 Birthplace of Christianity
 Birthplace of Islam
The Ottoman Empire
 By
1500 the Ottoman Empire had created a
huge empire that stretched from the Persian
Gulf to the western end of North Africa.
Decline of the Ottoman Empire
 The
Ottoman Empire was in decline by the
beginning of the 19th century.
 By the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman
Empire was known as “the sick old man of
Europe”.
 The empire ultimately collapsed in the
aftermath of the First World War.
Breakup of the Ottoman Empire
Colonial Control
 The
1916 Sykes-Picot Accord – British and
French mandates in the Middle East
 The
1917 Balfour Declaration – British
pledge to help establish a “national home”
for Jews
League of Nations Mandates
Palestine at the time of the British
Mandate
II. The Politics of Oil
 U.S.
involvement in oil politics of the Middle
East
 World War II and the Middle East
 The birth of modern Israel (1948)
The 1947 UN Partition
III. The Cold War in the Middle East
 Soviet
 The
interests in the Middle East
Truman Doctrine and the Middle East
 Conflict
 U.S.
resulting from the creation of Israel
involvement and peace initiatives
Israel and Palestine, 1947-1967
Egypt-Israeli conflicts, 1956, 1967,
1973
Area occupied by Israel after the Six
Day War, 1967
Return of Sinai to Egypt, 1974-1982
IV. Rise of Radical Islamists
► The
Iranian Revolution
 The
Iran-Iraq War
V. The First Persian Gulf War
Reshapes U.S. Policy
 The
U.S. response to the Iraqi invasion of
Kuwait
Part Two: Weighing U.S.
Priorities in the Middle East
I. Regional Security
 Iraq
 Iran
II. Political Islam
 The
shaping of U.S. relations with allies in
the Middle East
III. Resolving the Arab-Israeli
Conflict
 Challenges
facing the Palestinian Liberation
Organization
 The involvement of Jordan and Syria
 The U.S. role in peacekeeping
IV. Oil Trends