The Middle Eastern Cold War
Unique Dynamics in a Questionable Regional Framework
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8968864 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeffrey James Byrne (University of British Columbia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 320-322 |
| Publication date | 2011-04-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0020743811000109 |
| OpenAlex | W2329123361 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
One of the more prominent themes to emerge from this roundtable is the desire to integrate the history of the modern Middle East with broader trends in international history, particularly with regard to the recent emphasis on “decentralizing” and “globalizing” the Cold War narrative. My own research interests are consistent with this approach, as one of the central concerns of my current project is to show how Algeria's revolutionary nationalists defied the regional categories imposed on them from the outside by pursuing overlapping diplomatic initiatives under the rubrics of Maghribi unity, African unity, Arab unity, Afro-Asianism, and Third Worldism. After independence in 1962, the Algerian foreign ministry's main geographical divisions differed significantly from those used by the U.S. State Department—and most history departments’ hiring committees—by dividing the world into “the West,” “the Socialist Countries,” “the Arab World,” “Africa,” and “Latin America/Asia.” These categories were the product of both practical considerations and ideological/identity politics on the part of Algeria's new leaders, and to my mind suggest that the “Middle East” may itself be a particularly arbitrary and misleading geographical framework, even in comparison to other parts of the developing world where European imperialism exerted a heavy cartographical influence
Development economics · Economic history · Foreign policy · Identity (music · Ideology · Independence (probability theory · Latin Americans · Middle East · Narrative · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · African history and culture studies · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |