Why Does the Middle East Always Fail?

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Lord Curzon (1859–1925), the Viceroy of British India and later the renowned British Foreign Secretary, sailed to the Arabian Gulf, threatening the region’s rulers and employing deception in an effort to persuade them to accept British protection. At the time, Curzon recorded his observations, writing: “We found conflict and established a system in its place.” Yet the region soon began to boil with unrest—and it has never truly stopped.

When Lord Montgomery, later Field Marshal Montgomery, left Palestine in 1939 during the British Mandate, he declared: “The Arab Revolt has been completely and finally crushed.” It was not long before conflict and war erupted again, fueled by Western support for Jewish militias. Today, Trump is doing much the same thing, repeatedly declaring: “Iran has suffered an unprecedented and final defeat.” There is little need to comment on such statements and the falsehoods they contain.

Thus continues the chain of catastrophic mistakes made by Western leaders in their dealings with the region. They promote simplistic ideas and policies while remaining deeply absorbed in themselves. This is the result of Western misunderstanding and an inability to grasp the region’s profound local dynamics, coupled with a tendency to approach them through superficial labels such as democracy, the market economy, and counterterrorism—or through temporary reconciliations that mean little to the peoples of the region.

In his book The World: A History of the Middle East, the distinguished British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore examines the deep roots of the chronic crises that have ravaged the Middle East. Discussing the causes of the region’s pervasive disorder, he writes: “The history of the region is more controversial and contentious than anywhere else, yet it is the least understood by Westerners.”

A cauldron is a vessel in which something is continuously boiled, eventually causing explosions and disasters. This is how the Middle East has been since the beginning of the last century. Near-total Ottoman control rapidly faded, giving way to Western influence. Ideologies rose and then fell—from Arab nationalism to socialism and ultimately political Islam.

This was accompanied by the dual forces of wealth and revolution. Oil brought an enormous economic boom, but it also became a curse, fueling conflicts and the ambitions of major powers. Sectarian tensions became entrenched, while development trajectories veered off course. The cauldron continues to boil—and erupt.

Throughout the book, which runs to 528 pages, the names of regional leaders and politicians repeatedly appear. Of King Farouk, Montefiore writes: “He was an isolated ruler, immersed in his pleasures and surrounded by a retinue of corrupt figures and swindlers. Yet the West responded to such behavior with considerably greater tolerance.”

Montefiore argues that some of the region’s leaders, most notably Gamal Abdel Nasser and Ayatollah Khomeini, wielded greater effectiveness and influence than the major powers would have preferred. This, he suggests, was among the factors that contributed to confrontation.

Yet the book does not absolve the region’s own leaders of responsibility for the deterioration of conditions and the region’s descent into its current deplorable state. They ruled with an iron fist and allowed dangers to escalate.

Sudan is a stark example. The ongoing civil war in Sudan is described as “the largest massacre of civilians in the modern history of the Middle East,” with 400,000 people killed and nine million displaced.

Yes, the West bears responsibility for the region’s failures, but its leaders bear responsibility as well. The West did not simply leave us and walk away; it continues to intervene, by force or through other means. Yet our own confusion and problems make such intervention easier.

The author asks: “What is it that draws outsiders to the Middle East, bringing with them an excessive confidence in themselves and a certainty that they can establish peace and harmony?”

The answer is the region’s wealth—and the failure from which we never seem to escape.

Originally published in Al-Masry Al-Youm.