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COL 250 Common Writing Essay (Part 2) Middle East

Instructor: Phd. Nicholas Leech

Adjunct Professor in Colloquy program, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Students: Aref AlHammadi - 201131146

Student, College of Business Science, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Keywords: Middle East, Near East, Economy, Oil, Suez, GCC

Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 3 Background .................................................................................................................................... 3
Author Biography .................................................................................................................................. 4

Literature review ......................................................................................................................... 4 Decision ........................................................................................................................................... 5

West Asia is an amorphous term ...................................................................................................... 5 Global economic importance to Middle East ................................................................................ 6 The relation between Middle East States ...................................................................................... 7

Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 8

Introduction
In response to the article by Afshin Molavi of "Middle East 'is pulled towards Asia by economics and affinity" dated on May 25th 2011, The National newspaper. I don't believe that the term o f Middle East should be changed to West Asia. The article aimed to describe the authors opinion about the term of Middle East. Its recognizable that the author discussed important points about Asia relations with the GCC. However, there may some points that influenced my decision to disagree with him. Finally the main reasons that I disagree with changing Middle East term to West Asia because West Asia is an amorphous term, important to global economy, and relation between states.

Background
The term Middle East invented by Alfred Thayer Mahan, US naval Officer in 1902 (Davision, 1960). Arab is the largest ethic group beside to Turks and Parisian in Middle East (Levinson, 1998). The most important historian events in 20th century starting with Balfour Declaration in 1917, Suez Crisis in 1956, six-day war in 1967, Camp David Accords 1970, Iran-Iraq war from 1980 1988, Lebanese Civil War in 1990, Gulf War in 1991(Timetoast.com, 2012). Today Middle East consider critical region because its the main source of energy in the world and plays a key role in ship transport because it has very important canals such as Suez canal, and strike of Humors. Furthermore, Middle East faced a wave of protest in 2010 and its widely known by Arab spring. Middle.

Author Biography
The authors name is Afshine Molavi, an Iranian American has written widely on the Middle East, oil and gas industry, geo-economic trends in Asia, and globalization. He holds master's degree in Middle East history and international economics from the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He worked for many news agencies such as Reuters, Washington Post, and Financial Times. His article also appeared in National Geographic, BusinessWeek, The New Republic, Foreign Policy, Institutional Investor, the Journal of Commerce, and The Wilson Quarterly. In addition, he comments regularly on BBC and CNN about Middle East. Mr. Molavi is a senior follow in the New America Foundation and he studied links between economic development and democratization, geo-economics and geopolitics of the Middle East and Asia (New America fundation, 2012). New America foundation is a non-profitable organization aimed to study many issues related to national security, economy, health, energy, and education. New America foundation funded by private companies, individual, and public institutions. (New America fundation, 2012).

Literature review
Many journals and newsagents discussed various issues and facts of the region such as economic, politics, social, and so on in daily base, however few of it discuss the term of Middle East. In fact, the maturity of these few articles are agreed with what the Mr.Afshin said about the tem of Middle East and it should be change. For instance geography, according to Sedat Laciner (2006) The Middle East is neither the middle

of the East, nor it is a region with homogeneous characteristics (Laciner, 2006). To be honest, the authors both have right in their arguments whereas the region name Middle East is not middle of the east, and it doesnt have homogeneous characteristics. Furthermore, Roderic H. Davison, (1960) said, a term of Middle East may on occasion became a term of great inconvenience. (Davision, 1960). Therefore, a lot of confusing about using this term, but the questions that I have are Why we use this term used currently? Is there are any political reasons to keep this term? What is Did Middle East and GCC play a significant role in world economy?

What the common factors in this reign and how states effected by each others?

Decision
After review the article and another article related to the subject, I disagree to

change the term of Middle East to West Asia because West Asia is an amorphous term, global economic importance, and the relation between states

West Asia is an amorphous term

First, I disagree to change the term of Middle East to West Asia because West Asia is an amorphous term. Middle East is used to describe combination of Southwest Asia and North Africa. In fact using new terms should be precise and describe all regions rather than focusing only particular area such as GCC. There are some alternatives appeared within the literature, so it could be replaced to SWANA as mentioned by Bilgin (Bilgin, 2000) or Nile to Oxus as mentioned by Marshall

 Hodgson's alternatives (Hodgson, 1977). In 1947 British Governments stated in the commons Where the precision would be required, we should not use these terms (Davision, 1960). To sum up my point, rename the Middle East to West Asia not convenient because Middle East is a combination between Southwest Asia and North Africa. I agree to change the term of Middle East to an alternative term describe the region better than West Asia.

Global economic importance to Middle East

I disagree to change the term of Middle East to West Asia because global economic importance the region. In 1930s the Middle East became the most important source for energy in the world and its play key role in global security stability (VENN, 2000). Therefore, changing the term of the Middle East to West Asia only because the high oil imports is illogical reason. According Gal Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (2012), most of the worlds countries are heavily dependent on Persian Gulf oil. In 2006, the Middle East supplied 22 percent of U.S. imports, 36 percent of OECD Europes, 40 percent of Chinas, 60 percent of Indias, and 80 percent of Japans and South Koreas. Even oil- rich Canada is dependent on the Middle East (Luft, 2012). In addition to oil export Middle East play a key role in ease the transportation across the world such as Sues canal, Strait of Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb. According to Warden, (2011) Sues canal allow the ships to travel between west and east and avoiding long journey around Cape of Good Hope, cutting about 6000 miles. Around 2.4 billion barrels shipped throw Sues canal every day and that make it important and critical location to the global economy (Wearden, 2011). To sum up my point, I agree to change the term of Middle East to another term that shows the global important, not just West Asia.

The relation between Middle East States

I disagree to change the term of Middle East to West Asia because the relation between Middle East stats. Middle East countries have common factors integrated with Islamic culture. According to American Friends Vice president (1960) if injustice is perpetrated in one, a protest will be raised in the other-plus Israel (Davision, 1960). In fact, that what happened in Arab Spring in 2010, whereas the wave of protests start from Tunisia moving toward Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq Iran, turkey, and even GCC. This incident shows the connection between these countries and how they affected by each other (Garry Blight, 2012). Therefore, changing term Middle East at least should show the communication between these countries not just West Asia. To sum up my point, because of that communication rename Middle East to West Asia is illogical because this term is not describe the common facts between the countries specially because some countries fill in Asia, and the others in Africa, so we either rename the regain by mention all places like Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA), or find a new term that refered to the relationship between the countries.

Conclusion
Finally, although Britain and American use the term middle east for political reasons, the term is illogical to what in realities because as I mentioned above its not a middle of the East. However, using alternative terms should be relevant to the region from geographical and economical based. I expressed my points that explained why Im refuse to changing middle east to West East. The term West Asia is neither precise geographically, nor economically, nor even in define any relations between states.

 (Goff, Moss, Janice, & Michel, 2008)

Bibliography
Laciner, S. (2006). Is There a Place Called 'the Middle East'? Journal Of Turkish Weekly . Davision, R. H. (1960). Where is The Middle East? . Foreign Affairs. Bilgin, H. P. (2000). Regional Security in the Middle East :Critical Security Studies Studies. Aberyswtyth: University of Wales. Hodgson, M. G. (1977). The venture of Islam: conscience and history in a world civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press . VENN, F. (2000). A STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY? GREAT BRITAIN, THE UNITED STATES AND KUWAITI OIL IN THE 1930S. UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX. Luft, G. (2012). Dependence on Middle East energy and its impact on global security. Retrieved 2012, from http://www.iags.org/luft_dependence_on_middle_east_energy.pdf Wearden, G. (2011). Q&A: Suez Canal. Retrieved from The guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/01/suez-canal-egypy-q-and-a Garry Blight, S. P. (2012). Arab spring: an interactive timeline of Middle East protests. Retrieved from The guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east- protest-interactive-timeline

 Molavi, A. (2011). 'Middle East' is pulled towards Asia by economics and affinity. The National . Unit, E. I. (2011). GCC trade and investment flows The emerging-market surge . Economist Intelligence Unit . Goff, R., Moss, W., Janice, T., & Michel, S. (2008). The Twentieth Century and Beyond: A brief of Globel History. (Seventh, Ed.) McGrow-Hill.