There is a famous scene in the movie masterpiece “Lawrence of Arabia'' in which Arab rebels defeat the British army all the way to Damascus, and then their alliance falls apart. fight with each other over how to run the city.
British forces then swooped in and made a deal with Faisal, making him king but essentially retaining control of the area for themselves. Movies too References of Sykes-Picot Agreement The British Empire divided France and the Middle East.
What does that have to do with today? Well, everything.
As President Bashar al-Assad flees to Moscow, groans of anxiety are spreading across the Middle East and around the world. Will Syria survive as a country, or will the artificial borders created by Britain and France more than 100 years ago spark a new regional war that will eventually bring another Assad type to power as a strongman? I wonder if it is?
By drawing lines on maps that benefit only the West, countries that would become Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc. are not stabilized, but instead allowed to maintain control by their suzerains. It was intended for that purpose.
Let's take a look Syria ethnic map. Alawites, Sunni Muslims, and Kurds were all forced to migrate across borders to countries that did not benefit them.
in Iraqas well as Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds who were forced to share the country. No wonder a civil war broke out there after the American invasion. Civil war began in Syria in 2011. Lebanon was at war in the 1980s and has had an unstable peace ever since. Yemen's Houthis have rebelled. Kurds have been fighting Turks and Iraqis for their state. And let's not mess with Israel and Palestine either.
What we have seen is that since the Sky's Pico Accord, Middle Eastern countries have found stability only in the arms of autocratic strongmen. Syria's Assad dynasty, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, the Saudi royal family, and others have maintained their rule through the most undemocratic means.
These artificial borders are not limited to the Middle East. In the Scramble for Africa, European imperial powers divided entire continents based on what would benefit them, rather than the people who actually lived there. result? It's the same as the Middle East. Strongmen like Idi Amin and Robert Mugabe, civil war sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo, Religious violence like Somalia and kenyaand the worst of all is Genocide like Rwanda.
When ISIS began spreading its deadly lightning across the Levant, one of its goals was to destroy the borders created by ISIS. Skies Pico Agreement. This is very important. Because as the dust settles on the end of the Assad regime, different groups will have different ideas about how the Middle East should be structured.
The Islamists may be seeking to create another ISIS, like a “caliphate” for expansion, or simply an Islamic theocracy in Syria. The Kurds may eventually take action to gain their own country, which would lead to a war with Turkey. Syrian Christians may flee the homes they have lived in for thousands of years now that they are no longer protected by the Assad regime. Iran, Assad's ally, may try to regain influence by providing weapons and funding to various sects. Israel will definitely move towards annexation Golan Heights detailsAnd Saudis, Iraqis, and Jordanians will watch anxiously, hoping the fallout won't affect their countries.
It is easy to say that colonialism is a thing of the past and has no impact today. People who live in the Middle East, Africa, and other colonized places tend to make the foolish assumption that they just don't know how to live in a liberal democracy. It's very easy to cling to the pseudo-history that people in those places “have been fighting each other for centuries” while ignoring that Europe was the epicenter of some of the worst violence in history.
But if we really want to understand why these countries continue to languish, we may need to set aside our prejudices and accept our own complicity. That would be a good first step. If we are truly concerned about regional peace.
Jos Joseph is a master's candidate at the Harvard Extension School at Harvard University. He is a veteran of Iraq and lives in Anaheim, California.
