Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency conference report, dated October 1995, contains the proceedings of a conference on ethnic conflict held 30 September to 1 October 1993. The CIA's Geographic Resources Division sponsored it. Academic geographers, anthropologists and US Government officials presented papers on ethnic and territorial conflict in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and South Asia. They also discussed what these conflicts mean for US policy. The document contains no UFO material.
“Cooper”9 pages
C00123268 Ethnicity and Nationality in the rather than one continues to be a perplexing question Middle East for the people and contending monarchs and dictators of the region. At the end of the Cold War-as was the case at the end of the two world wars-most of the Marvin W. Mikesell countries of the Arab realm are anachronistic and, for Professor of Geography the most part, are arbitrary units of former empires. University of Chicago Nevertheless, jealousy or suspicion of neighboring states plus the ambition of state leaders has fostered The Middle East, with its immense petroleum reserves keen feelings of nationalism even in countries that had and unique role as a crossroads between Europe, Asia, only provincial or mandate status before their inde- and Africa, is a region of manifest global importance. pendence. It is also a region of inherent instability. Tension, if not open conflict, between states and among groups within states is a persisting reality. Add extreme dis- "Turkistan" parity between wealth and poverty, numerous disputed boundaries, the problems created by frustrated Pales- A similar perplexing question must now be posed in tinian and Kurdish political-territorial aspirations, the regard to Pan-Turkish aspirations. Before the breakup spreading influence of Islamic fundamentalism, and of the USSR, the world had only one Turkish state-- the prevalence of nondemocratic governments and it or two if we include the dubious "'Turkish Republic of is no wonder that the Middle East is perceived univer- Northern Cyprus." With the independence of the sally to be a region of contention and danger. former Soviet Republics of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakstan, Kirgizstan, and Uzbekistan, there are five additional ones. To date, concern about the character The Mirage of Arab Unity of this enlarged realm and indeed of a "Turkistan" that might include other Turkish-speaking peoples has It is ironic that a region blessed with a high degree of centered on practical issues such as what alphabet cultural unity should exhibit so much evidence of dis- should be used, economic reforms, and the efficacy of cord. Arabic is the official language of no less than secular or religious forms of government. The present 18 countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and potential influence of Russia, Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Afghanistan, and China in this vast area has invited Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, considerable speculation. It is possible that develop- United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Moreover, with ments in "Turkistan" will be influenced by more spe- the exception of Bahrain, Iraq, and Lebanon, Sunni cific ethnic interests. For example, it is easy to Muslims are the majority religious group in each of imagine Azeri-speakers from Iran serving as volun- these countries. This remarkable degree of linguistic teers in the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. and religious commonality might have inspired a per- Conflict in Persian-speaking Tajikistan has already vasive feeling of unity. In fact, the 18 Arab countries encouraged participation by the well-armed Tajiks of have seldom been able to function as a geopolitical northern Afghanistan. Conflict elsewhere in Central bloc, and rivalry among prospective Pan-Arab leaders Asia could encourage participation by Turkmen from has produced and doubtless will continue to produce Iran and Kazakhs and Uzbeks from Afghanistan or tension in the region. even from China. The fact that the Turkish- and Per- sian-speaking countries of the former Soviet Union all Attempts to merge various of the Arab states-for have substantial minority groups complicates the pic- example, Egypt and Syria in the United Arab Republic ture considerably. From an American or European during 1958-61-have been sporadic and ephemeral. perspective, Turkey's aspiration to be a Western-ori- Nor has any of the great cities of the region-Cairo, ented role model for Central Asia has obvious appeal. Damascus, and Baghdad-been able to function as a Pan-Arab capital. Why there are 18 Arab countries 99
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 205 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.