One more layer of the Middle East conflict was added. By the late 1960s, nations of the Middle East had attained independence and were seeking an identity in the global landscape. Today the problems besetting the greater Middle East are substantially greater than they were when substantial numbers of U.S.forces first began venturing into that region. Despite the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and other geopolitical events, the term ‘Middle East’ is an established term, widely used by people both within and outside the region. Contact our cross cultural training team to find out more. The Middle East denotes the transcontinental area between Western Asia and Egypt. Some of the world’s major religions including Islam, Christianity, and Judaism have their roots in the Middle East. Now why Middle East? The feud going on in the Middle East is a family matter that goes backs millenniums to Isaac and Ishmael. Deserts are areas of land that immediately evoke thoughts of vast sand dunes, unbearable heat, a baking sun and parched lands. This continental collision gave ris… Since the region encompasses some of the most northern parts of Africa and South West Asia then what exactly is the region to the east of and what is it in the middle of? All maps, graphics, flags, photos and original descriptions © 2020 worldatlas.com. The Middle East, collectively, is called the Crossroads of the World because it is where the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa meet. A question commonly raised during Middle East cross-cultural training is why the region is named this way. Why is the Middle East called the Middle East? Middle East, the lands around the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing at least the Arabian Peninsula and, by some definitions, Iran, North Africa, and sometimes beyond. Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol further enlarged this definition to cater for the Asian regions whose territories extended to India. The term "Middle East" originated from the same European perspective that described Eastern Asia as "the Far East." In the context of the cold war, the Middle East has rapidly emerged as a primary center of concern for American foreign policy. Islam is a monotheistic religion, teaching belief in one God and is based on the Quran.Muslims believe that Muhammad is the final prophet of God in a long chain of prophets, from Adam on down to John the Baptist, Jesus, and finally Muhammad. British colonisation of India made this region of critical importance to the British during this time. Name games Why no one is called Linda in Saudi Arabia The kingdom still bans some foreign names, but other countries are loosening up Middle East & Africa Sep 19th 2020 edition The technique is called divide and rule, and it has been a favorite of the FE for decades. What Is The Difference Between Near East and Middle East? While the majority of the inhabitants of the region speak Arabic, there are several countries in the Middle East that are not majority Arabic speaking, including Turkey, Iran, and Israel. It's a nomenclature issue. The Near East included the Ottoman Empire and the Balkans and the Far East included Asian countries along the Pacific Ocean. By Mark Curtis – Why the West’s World War One carve-up is still unfinished business. Islam. Asia, Europe and Africa. Some countries are occasionally added in the definition such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. About 20% of the world's Muslims live in the Middle East. The French and the British divided power in the Middle East after carrying out their partition and thus defining some of the geographic boundaries still used today. The region has achieved economic significance due to the presence of oil reserves. It needs to be understood that the reason why the Middle East conflict continues to exist is because foreign elements desire the conflict not to be solved. It's not a precise geographical area like Europe or Africa. The reason why it is called the Middle East is, that it is east of Europe, and is located in between three continents. American B-52s, the massive strategic bombers, arrived in the Middle East on Saturday. Our webinars are tailored to meet the specific needs of you and your colleagues. The area now designated as the Middle East was known as the Near East in medieval times. If you're interested in Middle Eastern culture, and especially if you work in the region, you will find our Middle East eLearning Online Cultural Awareness Course a great resource. His suggestion continues to receive a great deal of support and many academics. Among the centers of crisis that have burst onto the American public's map in recent years are Suez, Cyprus, Baghdad, Algeria, the Lebanon and others commonly lumped together today under the general label "Middle East." Well, it depends on who you ask. These religions have many adherents in the Middle East even in modern day. In 1967, another attack was made on Israel—this time by the Egyptian dictator, Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Islamic Caliphate began their Arab conquest of the area in the 7th century. 34 New House, 67-68 Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8JY, UK. Why not take part in a live intercultural training webinar with one of our intercutlural training specialists? Why Do Middle Eastern Men Wear a Chequered Head-dress? The Middle Eastern region was particularly important during this time as it served as a buffer region in the defence of British interests in India. Prior to the Second World War, another term, the "Near East", denoted the eastern shores of the Mediterranean in addition to regions centered around Turkey. The first is to account for the spectacular West European transformation that ushered in the modern economy; the second, to identify why the Middle East failed to keep pace with the modernization process under way across the Med iterranean. To everyone’s surprise, Israel survived, and the land was able to rest—but for only a short amount of time. The majority of the region’s population identify as Arabian, while the rest include Turkic, Arameans, Persians, Kurds, Berbers, Shabaks, Zazas, Assyrians, and Samaritans. The Middle East stands, as it has for centuries, at the center of historical currents and conflicting ideologies. (Global measurements of relative plate motions of Arabia with respect to Eurasia show higher velocities of 2.4-3.5 cm per year). Literary Arabic serves as the official language in most states in the area. At its most obtuse, Middle East connotes everything from Morocco to Afghanistan, spanning a melange of sub-regions stretching from North Africa to Central Asia. Other nations are quoted in the affairs of the Middle East such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. Basically if you're studying say the bronze age, you'd say near east but poltical science roughly the same geographic area would be referred to as the middle east. Ancient Near East was governed by multiple empires starting with the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Achaemenid, Macedonian, Iranian, Roman, and Byzantine Empires. Learn more about the history of the classification of the region in this article. The broader concept of the " Greater Middle East " (aka the Middle East and North Africa or the MENAP) also includes the Maghreb, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, the Comoros, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and sometimes Transcaucasia and Central Asia into the region. Why The Abraham Accord Is A Real Step Towards Middle East Peace The Abraham Accord provides genuine hope for Israel and its neighbors, and is … Geographically, there’s very little ‘east’ in the Middle East. Not only does it give practical tips on doing business in the region, but also provides specific insights into the different cultures wtihin the Middle East, the people, societies, values and mindsets. In a more strict sense, the Indies can be used to refer to the islands of Southeast Asia, especially the Indonesian Archipelago and the Philippine Archipelago. Jerwaharlal Nehru (the first Prime Minister in India), for example, argued that the term should be replaced with ‘West Asia’. It was after this usage that the term became widely used in the West. A Victory for Israel in the Middle East Conflict. Numerous dialects of the Arabic Language are widely spoken in the Middle East. Europ being the starting point ,the furthest China is called Far East, nearer Central Asia is called Middle East,nearest Eastern Europe is called Near East. Middle East was used by the British while naming its command in Egypt in the late 1930s. They can be found on every continent and come in all shapes and sizes. The term ‘Middle East’ then evolved to become common verbal currency in 1902 when Alfred Thayer Mahan, a USA naval officer and historian, used the term in an article to describe the land between Arabia and India. "Middle East” is problematic because it is, undeniably, a Western term reflecting a Western perspective. The "Middle East" as a term can be as contentious as the region it identifies. Updated January 28, 2019. 20 Must Know Arabic Words and Phrases for your Business Trip to the Arab World, 10 Very Cool Facts About South Korean Culture, Cultural Differences in International Merger and Acquisitions. Types Of Crimes By Number Of Offenses In The US. The task of explaining the Middle East’s rela tive economic decline presents, then, two sets of challenges. Attack #2—The Six-Day War. Many people argue however, that, since the term is Eurocentric and only valid from a Western perspective, that it should be replaced with a term that is more appropriate. It's not a political or economic alliance like the European Union. Other religions practiced in the area are Yazidism, Bahá'I Faith, Shabakism, and Mandaeism. It was popularized by Alfred Thayer Mahan, an American naval strategist who was referring to the region between Arabia and India in 1902. Some of the area's largest cities include Riyadh, Cairo, and Istanbul. 1950 W. Corporate Way PMB 25615, Anaheim, CA 92801, USA. But North African countries from Egypt westwards have little relevance to Asia, even though they are mostly Arab-populated. The Middle East, therefore, came to mean the lands in between these areas – essentially areas to the East of the Near East and to the West of the Far East. If you look at a globe, you may […] The Middle East’s pro-U.S. strongmen and their backers seem to know it. The term "Middle East" has led to some confusion over its changing definitions. Other languages also spoken are Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, Kurdish, Armenian, Greek, and English. The terms made sense when they were first coined, and they helped to designate locations from a Eurocentric perspective. Countries classified as being part of this region are Iraq, Iran, Cyprus, Oman, Egypt, Bahrain, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Palestine, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Kuwait, and Jordan. The Arabian continental plate, which collided with the Asian plate along the Bitlis-Zagros suture during the Eocene, is still converging with Asia at a rate of 1.9 to 2.3 cm per year based on GPS measurements. The tectonic framework of the Middle East is divided into (1) Zagros fold-and-thrust belt, (2) Unstable Arabian shelf, and (3) Stable Arabian shelf. The phrase “Middle East” was first used in 1876 as a synonym for “ Mesopotamia,” which literally meant “between rivers” in Ancient Greek, specifically between the Tigris and Euphrates in modern-day Iraq. Despite the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and other geopolitical events, the term ‘Middle East’ is an established term, widely used by people both within and outside the region. LAST fall's Suez crisis restored the Middle East to proper perspective in the war offices of the world. The Ottoman Empire, which had established control in the region, was defeated by the British after First World War. One hundred years ago this month, the guns of the European powers may well have fallen silent after four years of war.But in the Middle East, many of those same powers were creating the conditions for a century of further conflict. With all of the Middle East's best bits - warm and welcoming people, mind-blowing history and considerable culture, Lebanon is also the antithesis of many people's imaginings of the Middle East: mostly mountainous with skiing to boot, it's also laid-back, liberal and fun. The strategic importance of this crossroads between continents and its relationship to the world conflict were again emphasized by the clash of arms in an area where man first raised sword to man. +44 01963 23253 or +1 (315) 215 1652. The most widely accepted theory for why the Middle East is loaded with oil is that the region was not always a vast desert. Some on Twitter posted videos of Iraqis celebrating in the streets about the Soleimani strike. Another reason the so-called “Middle East” seems so war-torn is that it is not a single region. Mahan’s definition of the Middle East was the area around the Persian Gulf. The origin of the name came from the British Empire. The Middle East is a very diverse region, with many languages and cultures. The fighting in the Middle East is definitely in part over the land. By Benjamin Elisha Sawe on April 25 2017 in Society. Near east is generally used when talking about pre modern history of the same area, is was used to refer to what is now called the middle east. Europeans thought that they were the center of the world. During this period, the Orient (a term used to describe the East) was split into three distinct areas – the Near East, the Middle East and the Far East. Such civilizations include those of Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, Hittite, Greek, the Levant, Persia, and the Arabian Peninsula. Every day in the Middle East there are airstrikes and threats of war or invasions. The Middle East’s Reality Shiite Muslim Iran is next door to Iraq, of which 60 percent is Shiite. the same European perspective that described Eastern Asia as \"the Far East It is reputed as the cradle of civilization as it was home to some of the most ancient human developments. It is comprised of 17 nations and an estimated population of 371 million. The East Indies or the Indies are the lands of South Asia (the Indian subcontinent) and Southeast Asia. The Middle East, Wolfowitz lamented, was an area “where people only know how to create problems.” The result has been a perpetual tension: The Middle East might require American attention and management, but it was also a source of dangers and distractions that most U.S. officials would have been just as happy to avoid. Middle East eLearning Online Cultural Awareness Course. It's not even an agreed-upon term by the countries that constitute it. The region is an area of competition for global powers, such as Russia and the US. What goes on there reverberates across national borders and leaps over oceans. © Commisceo Global Consulting Ltd. 2020 All Rights Reserved. The name "Indies" is used to connote parts of Asia that came under the Indian cultural sphere. Deserts are actually a subclassification of a more encompassing ecosystem called “drylands”. Middle East Eye contacted Ulku Ocaklari for a reaction to the ban, but received no response by time of publication. In 1946, the Middle East Institute began operating in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. Islam is the most widely followed religion in the Middle East. The origin of the term "Middle East" is considered to be in the British India Office during the 1850s. They are part of the Fifth Bomb Wing at Minot AFB in North … To explain this in a nutshell, the term ‘Middle East’ is actually a political construct, which was coined in the 1850s by staff in the British India Office. 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