Greater Middle East

Recently we're hearing more and more about something called The Greater Middle East.
It's a new term that the Bush administration has created for a region that extends beyond the known geographical boundaries of the Middle East. It goes from Morocco in the west to Pakistan in the east.

They say that it's a plan to promote democracy in the "Greater Middle East" that will adapt a model like the one used to press for freedoms in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

It'll supposedly come in the form of a package of incentives that will be given to countries of the region in return for concrete steps towards political reform, improving the record on human rights, women’s empowerment and introducing economic reforms.
The incentives should also include offers by Western countries to expand political engagement, increase aid, facilitate membership in the World Trade Organization and foster security arrangements.

As part of the "Greater Middle East" initiative the United States seems to be planning to gather the important players of the region - including Israel - into a collective security arrangement.
(Yeah, Israel being a nuclear power that hates arab/muslim guts should make it a good security partner.)

Now some of this actually sounds really good. Too good to be true.

By creating the Greater Middle East, they group what they see as trouble areas into one region that they will stereotype and push useless pre-defined solutions at.
The expansion of the geographical boundaries of the region will also play down the importance of the Palestinian problem and make it out to be just one of several hot issues in the much wider region, maybe even painting the Palestinian struggle for their rights as one more example of terrorism widely spread throughout the region.
That way Israel would get it's way in everything and be able to do anything it wants in the name of self-defence.

In short, the Greater Middle East initiative is another way for this US administration to impose itself and it's agendas on the countries of the region and further strengthen it’s control over them.

Some articles talking about this:
- On the Greater Middle East [Al Ahram Weekly]
- Everyone else wants reform [Cairo Times]
- U.S. Says It Wants 'Home-Grown' Arab Reform [Reuters]
- Les Etats-Unis lancent leur projet d'un "Grand Moyen-Orient" [Le Monde]

[via Hou-Hou Blog]

Leave a comment | Bookmark | Digg | Stumble | Subscribe