Rentier State in the Middle East Issue 2022

Running head: RENTIER STATE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Rentier State in the Middle East
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The human civilization has always been guided by their spiritual and religious beliefs.
This is contradictory to their inherent characteristic of being the most rational beings on the
surface of the Earth. Rationality implies the use of reason and logic in order to solve the various
problems as faced by the human beings. However, due to the domineering presence of religion
and religious beliefs, there has been a significant decline in the use of rationality to solve such
issues. This is most evident in the relations as shared by the nation states of the world. The
Middle East region has always been a conflict ridden zone (Davison 2015). There are various
reasons which gave birth to such conflicts in this area of the world, the foremost among which
being the aspect of religion. The historical development of this region and the concerned
countries is observed to be steeped in religious conflicts. This is significant to understand
because this issue has been continuing even in the present world of today. This essay seeks to
understand the region of Middle East as seen through the lenses of conflict and security complex.
In this regard, the growth of the Ottoman Empire and its decline has been looked in to in a
detailed manner after the First World War. The essay also analyzes the Arab-Israeli conflict, the
origin of the Palestinian refugee problem and the impact of the sub-state loyalties. Furthermore,
the essay looks in to the ideological developments in the region, specifically the rise and fall of
Arab nationalism, the emergence of Islamic radicalism which has led to the major regional crisis
and their consequences. In this context, the role of the outside state actors of the United States of
America, the European Union and that of Russia in the region of the Middle East has been
examined in a comprehensive manner. The essay concludes with the imperial legacy of the
United States and the consequence of such imperialism on the Arab countries of this part of the
world.

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Theory of the Rentier State
Often times it is observed that certain countries of the world are dependent on the aid
received by other powerful nation states of the world. This aid is usually given in lieu of the
natural resources which are received from such developing countries. This can be seen to be in
existence in the region of the Middle East where different Arab nation states depend on the
foreign aid and assistance received from the United States of America and Russia for
maintaining their geopolitical strategic interests. These foreign countries in turn, are interested to
intervene in the power play of the region since the Middle East is a resource rich country
(Emiralioglu 2016).
Rise of the Ottoman Empire
During the start of the eleventh century, it was observed that the caliphs belonging to the
Abbasid Empire hired certain Turks from the region of Western Anatolia and Iran in order to
defend them from the attack of other empires (Keyder 2018). The Turks fought for the Abbasid
Caliphs which made them to gain power in an eventual power (Levy 2017). This in turn led to
the birth of the Suljuk confederation. The Turks started to settle down in this region and profess
their religion of Sunni Islam. Slowly, this gave birth to the Ottoman Empire in the 1300 AD
(Shaw 2016).
Decline of the Ottoman Empire
However, this mighty empire started to decline after the end of the First World War
(Bayly 2016). The Ottoman Empire started to lose out on its territories and military power after
the end of the War. For an empire to remain in power, it is essential to keep the soldiers engaged

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in military engagement. However, the First World War revealed the horrors of waging war and
this initiated a process of peace and harmony in the world.
Furthermore, it can be observed that the imperial powers of the world had different
designs for the region of Middle East. After the end of the War, the British and the French forces
signed a secret treaty, known as the Skyes Picot Agreement by which it was granted to the Jews
that they would be able to build up their homeland within the region of Palestine (Goffman
2015). The led to the birth of the historic Balfour Agreement.
Arab Israeli Conflict
The Arab Israeli conflict emerged as a result of the historical blunder made by the
imperial forces of Britain and France by the way of the institution of the Balfour Declaration
(Bickerton and Klausner 2018). The Jews who were so long living in different parts of the world,
were given the imperial guarantee that they would be able to form their homeland within the
region of Palestine, which was already occupied by the Arabs. The Arabs therefore, were
enraged that their homeland would now to given to a foreign group of people who had no
rational claim to this land apart from their spiritual claim (Laqueur and Schueftan 2016). This led
to the beginning of the Arab Israeli conflict which was characterized by a host of military
conflicts and political tensions.
It was only after the year of 1947 that the issue became internationally significant
(Rynhold 2015). Germany engaged in genocide whereby they wanted to kill all the Jews staying
in Europe. This Holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis, led the remaining surviving Jews to migrate
in large numbers to their rightful land in Jerusalem. However, since the Arabs living in Palestine
were reluctant to welcome the Jews, the United Nations decided to partition Palestine in to two