Cold War: Arab Version

A primer

The Arab Cold War according to many started when Gamal Abdel Nasser took over Egypt in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. While this is true, in my opinion, the seeds of all ideologies that contributed to the Arab Cold War were sown during World War I, followed by the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Ideologies of Nationalism, Monarchism, Islamism, and Socialism all came to dominate the region during this period.

The Arab revolt against the Ottomans was a mixture of Arab Nationalism, Islamism, and Republicanism. The Arab Enlightenment, known as the Nahda began in Egypt after the French invaded and defeated the Mamluks who were essentially Ottoman administrators in the region. It also led to the Tanzimat reforms in the Ottoman Empire, but more importantly, it led to the Arabs awakening to the fact, that the Ottomans, while Muslims were not Arabs. The Sharif of Mecca, Hussein bin Ali, later the King of Hejaz is remembered by Islamists for being the proclaiming a caliphate, he is also the father of Pan-Arabism. His caliphate was later invaded and taken over by the Saudis. His sons became the kings of the Hashemite Kingdoms of Syria, Iraq, and Jordan. Syria was later taken away by the French according to the Sykes-Picot agreement.

Gamal Abdel Nasser and his ideology of Pan-Arabism was a mixture of Arab nationalism and socialism. It is seen as a left-wing, progressive ideology but in reality, was what we call Third Way politics. Arab Fascism to be exact. Baathism is also a fascist ideology. Secular, but stressed Islam, Arabness, and the ‘Arab’ race as something important. To those who bring up the question of their friendship with the communist USSR, read about what they did with Communists and Islamists in their own country.

The other side consisted of conservative Islamic monarchies. They were heavily supported by the West. Many of them were attempting to modernize their society, but in many cases, they were unsuccessful. Even in the 21st century, many are still trying to move towards a modern society and economy and some others have to a large extent. They are ‘modern’ but not liberal, it may seem like an oxymoron, but it is not.

The rise of Arab nationalism with Gamal Abdel Nasser was nothing sort of marvelous. He wanted Egypt to become a modern economy, so wanted to fund many public projects and sought monetary assistance from the West and the USSR. The West refused to assist him due to his deals with the USSR, he moved forward with Soviet Assistance, which led to the Suez Canal nationalization and the crisis, where the British, French, and Israelis tried to retake the Canal and found success militarily but were repudiated on a diplomatic level by both the US and USSR who wanted a world “free of colonial empires”.

The diplomatic loss of both the “Imperialist” West and Zionist Israel was seen as a big victory by the Arabs, and it led to a surge of popularity for the idea of Pan-Arab socialism. This led to the free movement of officers in many Arab nations and even the free movement of princes in Saudi Arabia. The former succeeded, and the latter failed. Many Pan-Arab regimes and Baathist states came to dominate the Arab political scene, and Egypt was the leader of this whole movement. Nasser propagated his ideas through Radio Cairo. Libya and Algeria both had Nasserite governments and Syria and Iraq had Baathist governments which were ideologically very close to Nasserism if not identical.

A pillar of both the Arab Cold War and Nasserite ideology was the question of Palestine. Nasserites and Pan-Arabists were seen as the only group in MENA by the Arabs who were fighting for the Palestinians. This idea while very successful as propaganda, never materialized in reality. Egypt gave military assistance to Nasserite forces in Arab nations and finally had their own Vietnam in Yemen. This led to the weakening of the Egyptian military. During the Yemeni Civil War(1962–1970), the six-day war took place which broke the Pan-Arab back because while the Nasserites and Baathists were good at diplomacy and propaganda, they faced a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Israelis. Egypt lost the Sinai Peninsula as well. Nasser passed away in 1970 and his successor recognized Israel as a nation, making Egypt the first Arab nation to recognize Israel. Egypt was seen as a traitor and kicked out of the Arab League. The conservative monarchies decisively won after the 1973 oil embargo, but the Cold War had not ended and was going through a transitory phase and was going to begin again within half a decade.

I would like to also dedicate a paragraph to the Israelis as a third pillar of the Cold War as they are the garrison state of the West in the region. They are to ensure the West’s dominance there. MI6 for example, bombed Holocaust survivors ship to blame it on the Palestinians to gain sympathy for the Zionist State. It is an Anglo-American project to ensure Western watch in the region.

The year 1979 was an important year for both the Shia and Sunni worlds. The Shia Iranian revolution took place in Iran, overthrowing the 2500 year old monarchial setup and the birth of a Shia republic power in MENA and the siege of the Great Mosque of Mecca which led to Saudi Arabia slowing down its modernization and start the export of Wahhabism. The primary reasons for the siege was the ‘Mahdi’ coming back and the American bases in Saudi Arabia.

During the 1980’s and 1990’s the Turks also became more Eurasian in orientation regarding foreign policy and less European. This led to their support for the Arab Spring which angered the monarchies in the region as well.
The present-day Arab world has 4 corners of geopolitics. The newer corner is of Sunni Islamist republics and monarchies. The three older ones remain.

Iran with their Shia crescent are required as a power to ensure that the region does not become Sunni dominated, and, a more isolated Iran is better for the Indian republic. The fall of the present regime will make them less isolated and that can hurt our carefully cultivated relationship with the Iranians. During the Obama regime, they had started acting up because they had become relatively less isolated, that is not desirable for us.

A non-nuclear Iranian regime is ideal for us. We might also need their help to obscure the view of the Ottomans.