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Showing posts from July, 2021

The Ottoman Empire in the Post-Tanzimat Period and World War I

 The Ottoman Empire in the Post-Tanzimat Period and World War I          The map of the Middle East was completely redrawn as a result of World War I. The only prewar border in the region that remained essentially unchanged was that between Iran and what became the Turkish Republic. These changes had extraordinary effects on the region’s entire population, upsetting centuries of commercial, social, political, and cultural ties. The effects of these wholesale changes still reverberate nearly a century later. The twentieth century began with the Ottoman state facing a multitude of external and internal problems, including dissent throughout the provinces and among reformers unhappy with the absolutist rule of Abdülhamid II. The reformers believed that Abdülhamid II had moved the Ottoman state backward by suspending the constitution in 1878 and by using religious rhetoric to prop up his authority. He was deposed in 1908 by a group of reformers known as th...

Middle East Facts

  Middle East Facts        A variety of countries make up the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Widely spoken languages in the Middle East and North Africa include Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Berber, Kurdish, French, and English. The Middle East has been referred to as the crossroads of the world? because it connects the three continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe. The majority of Muslims do not live in the Middle East. More Muslims live in South Asia than in the Middle East and North Africa combined. The country with the world's largest Muslim population is Indonesia, which is in South Asia, not the Middle East. Roughly 60% of the population in the Middle East is under 25 years old. The term “Arab” generally refers to people...

UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT: THE IMPACT OF WORLD WAR I IN THE MIDDLE EAST

  UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT: THE IMPACT OF WORLD WAR I IN THE MIDDLE EAST           Watching the ongoing refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe, I cannot but recall the suffering of Middle Eastern people at another time of great upheaval: during the First World War and following its settlement.      The history of the Great War helps us to understand how the violent past is responsible for the current turmoil in the Middle East. Historians have covered the destruction caused by the First World War in Europe extensively, but many in the West do not realize the level of destruction and upheaval it caused in the Middle East. The losses in the Middle East were staggering: the war not only ravaged the land and decimated armies, but it also destroyed whole societies and economies. In this way, the experience of World War I in the Middle East is perhaps more akin to the experience of World War II in Europe. The social, economic, and p...

Historical and strategic importance of Middle East since World War I

                              The middle East is a transcontinental area located primarily in western Asia. And it also connects to some of the parts of the African and European continent. The western borders connect to the Mediterranean Sea where Israel, Lebanon, and Syria rest opposite from Greece and Italy in Europe. The Red and Arabian Seas surround the southern part of the center East. Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman border these waters, with Iraq and Jordan connecting them to the western part of the region. In the middle of the center, East rests the Persian Gulf, cutting into the region and giving it its hook-like shape. Countries along the Persian Gulf include the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Iran. The Middle East is also called, "land of the seven seas." The world's three biggest religions originated in The Middle East, Judaism, Christianity, and...

West Asia and the Arab world since 1919

  West Asia and the Arab world since 1919 Outline: 1          Middle East: Strategic importance, geography and history Turkey: 2          Downfall of Ottoman Empire during WWI 3          Turkish war of independence 4          Mustafa Kemal reforms 5          Cyprus problem 6          Turkey and Pakistan Egypt: 7          Egyptian Nationalism after WWI 8          Free officer’s movement, Coup d’état 9          Suez War 10        1967 Arab Israeli war 11        1973 Arab Israeli war 12...

NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION

NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION      In May 1998, India and Pakistan engaged in a series of nuclear tests, raising  the possibility of escalation in the pace of nuclear proliferation around the  world. Nuclear proliferation refers to the spread of nuclear weapons to states that did not possess them prior to 1968, when the Nuclear Non-Proliferation  Treaty (NPT) was signed. Until the Indian and Pakistani nuclear detonations, international efforts to arrest the spread of nuclear arms in the 1990s  seemed to be enjoying some success. The rate of nuclear proliferation appeared to be slowing down, the geographic scope of proliferation was  shrinking, and de-nuclearisation was achieved in 1996 in parts of the former Soviet Union. Three post- Soviet states with nuclear weapons left on their  territory – Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine – cooperated in the removal of those weapons to Russia and joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as non-nuclear-w...

State succession

  State succession      State succession refers to the merging of two or more States. It is different from government succession in the sense that in government succession there’s a change of government whereas in State succession the State loses control over its partial or whole territory.  Art 2(1)(b)  of the Vienna Convention on the succession of States in respect of treaties in 1978 defines the term State succession as ‘the replacement of one State by another in the responsibility for the international relations of territory’. In essence, it deals with the succession of one state with another and the transfer of rights and obligations. This concept has assumed greater importance since World War II owing to its effects on the legal obligations of the States.  Circumstances of State Succession      State succession can arise in a number of defined circumstances, which mirror the ways in which political sovereignty may be acquired. They...

Relationship between International Law and Municipal Law

  Relationship between International Law and Municipal Law Law is the element of the society which helps to develop a framework within which rights and duties can be established. World order today requires a method whereby interstate relations could be conducted, and International law fills this gap. The United Nations developed this body of International law for the purpose of promoting international peace and security. Countries come together to make binding rules that they believe benefit their citizens. International laws promote peace, justice, common interests and trade. States work together to strengthen International law because it plays an important role in society. It is directly and strongly influenced, although not made, by the writings of jurists and publicists, instructions to diplomatic agents, by important conventions even when they are not ratified, and by arbitral awards. Theories on the relationship between International law and Municipal law The two principal th...