scholarly journals China and the New Geopolitics of Eurasia

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Daniel S. Markey
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Arms Sales ◽  
History Of ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
Infrastructure Investments ◽  
Global Initiatives

This chapter introduces China’s new global initiatives like the vaunted “Belt and Road” and previews how the political and economic interests of other states in South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East tend to set the conditions for Chinese activities and shape regional outcomes. It leads with the history of China’s involvement in Pakistan’s Gwadar port. It then identifies ways in which Eurasia’s powerful and privileged groups often expect to profit from their connections to China, while others fear commercial and political losses. Similarly, it foreshadows how statesmen across Eurasia are scrambling to harness China’s energy purchases, arms sales, and infrastructure investments to outdo strategic competitors, like India and Saudi Arabia, while negotiating relations with Russia and the United States. This chapter introduces the book’s subsequent chapters on China’s Eurasian aspirations, South Asia and China, Central Asia and China, the Middle East and China, and the American policy response.

US-China competition will create Middle East dilemmas

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The United States ◽  
Belt And Road Initiative ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Key Sectors ◽  
History Of ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
The Belt And Road

Significance The Middle East has long been polarised between US allies and enemies, while Beijing has historically retained a comparatively smaller footprint and rejected taking sides in regional political and security disputes. However, its economic interests are increasing. Impacts The United States will maintain a comparative advantage from its long history of political, military and economic cooperation in the region. Beijing could leverage its control over large industrial conglomerates in key sectors such as energy, infrastructure and biotechnology. The Belt and Road Initiative will be an attractive project for all Middle Eastern countries, maximising their geographical advantages.

Turkey’s foreign policy priorities in the Middle East and Afghanistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10-3) ◽  
pp. 228-237
Author(s):  
Marina Shpakovskaya ◽  
Oleg Barnashov ◽  
Arian Mohammad Hassan Shershah ◽  
Asadullah Noori ◽  
Mosa Ziauddin Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
The United States ◽  
Turkish Foreign Policy ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
East Region ◽  
History Of ◽  
Middle East Region

The article discusses the features and main approaches of Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East. Particular attention is paid to the history of the development of Turkish-American relations. The causes of the contradictions between Turkey and the United States on the security issues of the Middle East region are analyzed. At the same time, the commonality of the approaches of both countries in countering radical terrorism in the territories adjacent to Turkey is noted. The article also discusses the priority areas of Turkish foreign policy, new approaches and technologies in the first decade of the XXI century.

China's Western Horizon

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel S. Markey
Keyword(s):  
Political Influence ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Regional Politics ◽  
National Wealth ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
Infrastructure Investments

This book explains how China’s new foreign policies like the vaunted “Belt and Road” Initiative are being shaped by local and regional politics outside China and assesses the political implications of these developments for Eurasia and the United States. It depicts the ways that President Xi Jinping’s China is zealously transforming its national wealth and economic power into tools of global political influence and details these developments in South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Drawing from extensive interviews, travels, and historical research, it describes how perceptions of China vary widely within states like Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Iran. Eurasia’s powerful and privileged groups often expect to profit from their connections to China, while others fear commercial and political losses. Similarly, statesmen across Eurasia are scrambling to harness China’s energy purchases, arms sales, and infrastructure investments as a means to outdo their strategic competitors, like India and Saudi Arabia, while negotiating relations with Russia and America. The book finds that, on balance, China’s deepening involvement will play to the advantage of regional strongmen and exacerbate the political tensions within and among Eurasian states. To make the most of America’s limited influence along China’s western horizon (and elsewhere), it argues that US policymakers should pursue a selective and localized strategy to serve America’s aims in Eurasia and to better compete with China over the long run.

scholarly journals The Danger of Analogical Myths: Explaining the Power and Consequences of the Sykes-Picot Delusion

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 132-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby Dodge
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
Historical Analogy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Units ◽  
Postcolonial States

Even before its hundredth year anniversary on 16 May 2016, the Sykes-Picot agreement had become a widely cited historical analogy both in the region itself and in Europe and the United States. In the Middle East, it is frequently deployed as an infamous example of European imperial betrayal and Western attempts more generally to keep the region divided, in conflict, and easy to dominate. In Europe and the United States, however, its role as a historical analogy is more complex—a shorthand for understanding the Middle East as irrevocably divided into mutually hostile sects and clans, destined to be mired in conflict until another external intervention imposes a new, more authentic, set of political units on the region to replace the postcolonial states left in the wake of WWI. What is notable about both these uses of the Sykes-Picot agreement is that they fundamentally misread, and thus overstate, its historical significance. The agreement reached by the British diplomat Mark Sykes and his French counterpart, François Georges-Picot, in May 1916, quickly became irrelevant as the realities on the ground in the Middle East, U.S. intervention into the war, a resurgent Turkey and the comparative weakness of the French and British states transformed international relations at the end of the First World War. Against this historical background, explaining the contemporary power of the narrative surrounding the use of the Sykes-Picot agreement becomes more intellectually interesting than its minor role in the history of European imperial interventions in the Middle East.

scholarly journals Caliphatism in the period of decline and collapse of the Ottoman Empire

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-337
Author(s):  
Svetlana A Kirillina ◽  
Alexandra L Safronova ◽  
Vladimir V Orlov
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Role ◽  
Muhammad Rashid Rida ◽  
Political Actions

The article analyses the historical role of the movement for defenсe of the Caliphate, which emerged in various regions of the Muslim world as a response to weakening and fall of the Ottoman Empire. The authors also focus on the social and political discussions of the 1920s - 1930s about the destiny of Muslim unity and the role of the future Caliphate. The article also deals with the transformation of conceptions of the Caliphate in the works of eminent ideologists and politicians of the Muslim world - Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi, Muhammad Rashid Rida and Abul Kalam Azad. The authors give an overview of the history of Caliphatist congresses and conferences of 1920s - 1930s. The aims and tasks of the Caliphatist movement among the Muslims of South Asia are also under study. The article examines the reaction of the South Asian princely elites to the weakening of the Ottoman state and explores the interrelation between pro-Ottoman sentiments of Caliphatists and the radicalization of anti-colonial struggle of Indian Muslims. A special attention is given to the role of leaders of Indian Caliphatists in preparation of the antiBritish uprisings in North-Western Hindustan. The authors also examine common and specifi c features of views and political actions of advocates and supporters of the Caliphate in the Middle East and in the Islamic communities of South Asia. The analysis of the source data reveales several patterns of reaction of Muslims in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia to the repudiation of the Caliphate by the Republican Turkey.

English in Asia, Asian Englishes, and the issue of proficiency

English Today ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingsley Bolton
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
East Asia ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
English Learning ◽  
Outer Circle ◽  
Asian Region ◽  
The World ◽  
Basic Issue

ABSTRACTThe contemporary visibility and importance of English throughout the Asian region coupled with the emergence and development of distinct varieties of Asian Englishes have played an important part in the global story of English in recent years. Across Asia, the numbers of people having at least a functional command of the language have grown exponentially over the last four decades, and current changes in the sociolinguistic realities of the region are often so rapid that it is difficult for academic commentators to keep pace. One basic issue in the telling of this story is the question of what it is we mean by the term ‘Asia’, itself a word of contested etymology, whose geographical reference has ranged in application from the Middle East to Central Asia, and from the Indian sub-continent to Japan and Korea. In this article, my discussion will focus on the countries of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, as it is in these regions that we find not only the greatest concentration of ‘outer-circle’ English-using societies but also a number of the most populous English-learning and English-knowing nations in the world.

The Islamic East a millennium ago: Biruni’s world

Biruni ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
George Malagaris
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Complex World ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Historical Aspects ◽  
Medieval Islam

Biruni constantly investigated his complex world in its natural and historical aspects. He perceived his homeland of Khwarazm in the manner of a modern physical geographer while simultaneously maintaining awareness of its underlying cultural currents and far-flung connections with distant lands. He appreciated that the notion of a region depended on cultural and political factors; indeed, the modern usage of the terms Central Asia, Middle East, and South Asia implies a multiplicity of histories, as he doubtlessly would have understood. Biruni himself frequently commented on its significance and persistently sought to interpret its underlying tendencies throughout his writing. Whether he touched on the topics of ancient Iran, late antique Hellenism, or early medieval Islam, Biruni added to the knowledge of his contemporaries, and the survival of his works has augmented our own.

scholarly journals The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: Gateway to Central Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 05 (03) ◽  
pp. 455-469
Author(s):  
Mir Sher Baz Khetran ◽  
Muhammad Humayun Khalid
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Energy Demands ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Regional Markets ◽  
History Of ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
Central Asian Countries ◽  
The Belt And Road

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); and its launch in 2015 was regarded as a landmark event in the history of the Sino-Pakistani relationship. With a budget amounting to over $62 billion, it has become the foremost regional integration initiative between China and Pakistan. The project is also open to all interested regional stakeholders, among which Central Asia is one of the most important in geopolitical terms. Located in a landlocked but resource-rich region, Central Asian countries need better access to regional markets including Pakistan, China, India, and the countries of West Asia. Pakistan and China have huge energy demands that can be satisfied by growing trade with Central Asia. Thus, the CPEC will not only benefit Pakistan and China, but it also presents a strategic opportunity for Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan to transport their goods more easily and gain competitiveness in regional and global markets.

Wars of Modern Babylon

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pesach Malovany ◽  
Ya'akov Amidror ◽  
Amnon Lipkin-Shahak ◽  
Kevin M. Woods
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Intelligence ◽  
The Core ◽  
Saddam Hussein ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

This book describes the history of the Iraqi Army from its establishment in 1921 until its collapse in 2003 in the war against the Coalition Forces, the core of which was a highly intensive 24-year period under the leadership of Saddam Hussein. It analyzes the development and activities of this army, and focuses on the major wars in which it participated during Saddam’s regime: the prolonged war against Iran (1980-1988) and the two wars against the Coalition Forces led by the United States (1991 and 2003), as well as the wars against Israel and the Kurds in earlier periods. The book is based mostly on Iraqi sources—Newspapers and other media means, books and documents, and presents all this mostly from the Iraqi perspective. Its major innovation lies in its presenting this topic to the reader—including all the elements of the construction of the Iraqi fighting force, its war strategies, its functioning on all levels (strategic, operative and tactical), its forces and branches, its command and many other subjects—in a comprehensive, detailed manner,. My experience in dealing with military issues in the Middle East during my long service with the Israeli Military Intelligence helped me very much in dealing with this huge Army, and to understand its concepts, its historical roots and the way it was conducting its war, The Wars of Modern Babylon.

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