Towards the end of the first quarter of the 20th century and with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East region fell under Western colonization; those countries were able to gain their independence during and after the World War II. However, the ideological impact that affected many regions, including the Middle East and the Cold War (1947: 1991 AD) prevented them from gaining a full independence, and consequently creating a safe environment. Countries of the Middle East were forced to spend a large portion of their economic resources on arms due to the Arab-Israeli war and multiple internal conflicts. Under the new world order, European countries were able to market their weapons and sell them to the Middle East, and thus they were used during “geopolitical” conflicts in the region. Under the pretext of protecting their borders due to the Israeli occupation, the emergence of extremist groups and the overall changes that occurred to their borders, countries within this region sought more weapons, which eventually became the biggest client for arms producers.
As time went by, the language of diplomacy between the Middle East countries became more acute as the language of weapons dominated the region. The Middle East region became one of the essential markets in the global arms industry due to its crucial strategic location, where it is surrounded by Europe, Asia and Africa, facilitating international trade routes, and providing oil. The political and humanitarian borders of the region changed after the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, where the conflict areas expanded due to the ambiguity brought by the “Arab Spring”. It is interesting how the global arms’ companies play a major role in keeping the current situation unchanged. Particularly, the wars that take place in the region create new markets, and help European companies sell their weapons. Thus, the oil-rich Middle East has become – in a complex and uncertain context – the world’s largest and most attractive market for arms.
The persistence of wars in the Arab countries is directly related to the US imported weapons. Therefore, the future of war in the region can be predicted through looking at the weapons that are continued to be sold by arms companies – under permanent members of the Security Council – to countries of the Middle East. To put it in another way, member states of the Security Council that pass laws on peace and war in the new era are the same countries who gain the most from the potential wars, as they produce and sell more than half of the global weapons.
Leave A Comment