American Policy For The Middle East After The Cold War And The Situation Of The Middle East

The Middle East is located in the junction of Europe, Asia and Africa. Its strategic position is very important. In the Middle East, the contradiction is most centralized and most complex in the world. The Middle East is a hot spot place where there is the most violent force and the most local conflicts. The Middle East has rich resources of energy. The supplies and prices of energy play an important role in the prosperity of economy of all countries, so this decides that The Middle East has a particular role in the economic life in the world. People always pay attention to the situation of the Middle East. At present the situation of the Middle East continues to be tense and unstable and various kinds of terrorist attacks and conflicts still occur sometimes. The reason of its unstable situation is complex which has deep history and realistic root. But the external reason which influences the situation of the Middle East is mainly the American policy for the Middle East. Because American is the most powerful country in the world which has important benefit and influence in the Middle East, American policy for the Middle East has decisive influence on the situation of the Middle East. From researching the situation of the Middle East, this paper mainly analyses American policy for it and its influence on the situation of it.In the first part I introduced the Middle East's strategic position in the world. At present the Middle East is the most important producing area of energy, an important traffic lines of business, a key position of the export and the input of capital, the transferring market of industry and technology, an important area covered by information revolution which has critical impact on the situation of world's economic running.The Middle East is located in the junction of Europe, Asia and Africa. In its edges or inland there is Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Caspian Sea and so on. It's a famous place of three continents and five seas. The Middle East has a unique geographical location and some international strategic channels such as Black Sea channel, Hormuz channel and so on. The land, the sea and the sky are all important traffic hubs in the world, making the Middle East's importance in world's politics, economy and military obvious.In the aspect of petroleum resource, the original Middle East is the largest oil-producing area in the world. After the range was extended, the petroleum resource of Caspian Sea and Middle Asia was also included. This increased the strategic significance of Middle East. The petroleum resource in the Middle East is abundant and also the volume of the production and export of the petroleum comes out top. In addition, the cost of developing petroleum in the Middle East is much less than that in other areas in the world. At present the significance of the petroleum in the Middle East is more and more obvious; so many countries in the world want to control the Middle East. With the fast developing of economy and the increasing of requirement of energy sources, the significance of the petroleum in the Middle East is more and more obvious.In addition, the Middle East's influence of religion is important and deep to the world. Judaism, Christianity and Islamism emerged in order in the Middle East and the conflicts of religions are complex. There is contradiction between Judaism and Islamism, and also between Islamism and Judaism. In Islamism, six sects such as Sunnis, Shiites and Sufis have contradictions.In the second part of this paper, I mainly analyzed American policy for the Middle East after the cold war. After the cold war, to carry out American edition's new orders of the Middle East and build the new order controlled by America, America adjusted its policy for the Middle East. In the Gulf War, America strongly beat some Middle East countries who are its enemies with its strong military. And then America carried out the policy in which keeping Iran and Iraq within its limits in east and promoting peace talks in west are the main contents. From the end of the Cold War until now, the US has experienced the governments of old Bush, Clinton and young Bush. During this time, American strategic benefit has little changing in the Middle East. But as they faced different international situations and different situations in Middle East, they made different policies.In old Bush era, America attempted to use the opportunity which included the end of the Cold War and the success of the Gulf War to beat the opposition in the Middle East and build a new order which is controlled by America. America also sought the understanding and support from the moderates of the Arab world and promoted the peaceful process of the Middle East. In addition, America also used its superiority of military to protect its benefit in the Middle East.In Clinton era, maintaining the master position and the benefit of petroleum is the most important in American strategic benefits. As the international situation greatly changed, Clinton took new policies in the Middle East. First of all, Clinton advocated promoting the peaceful process of the Middle East to maintain a stable situation in the Middle East. This can maintain and even strengthen American influence and benefits in the Middle East. Secondly, America still kept Iran and Iraq within its limits and Strengthened relations with the allies in Middle East. Thirdly, America continued maintaining the military existence in Middle East and attacked the terrorism to ensure American benefits of petroleum.In the early period of the administration of young Bush, America stressed in maintaining the harvest and position which had already been held and keeping American advantages in Middle East. So America gave up participating Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and adopted a careless attitude. In addition, to control Iraq and overthrow Saddam's regime, America changed its policy for Iraq. After 9·11, America integrated its policy for the Middle East. Attacking the terrorist and preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction came to be the most important task in American security strategy. In addition, young Bush gave up the strategy of containment and deterrent and carried out the strategy of attacking.In the third part of this paper, I analyzed the Middle East's situation influenced by America.Firstly, I analyzed the unstable situation in the Middle East. Since America has started the Iraq War, Middle East's situation was unstable. The explosions and attacks occurred frequently and the number of casualties grew fast which arouse the attention of the international society. There are three problems during the developing of the Middle East's situation. Firstly, peace hasn't been seen after the Iraq War and the activities of anti-America are active. The attacks to American military and Iraqi police, Bombings and hostage-taking always occur. People live in turbulence and fear. The reconstruction of economy is very difficult. Secondly, Palestinian's violence against Israeli's occupation occurs frequently. Israel adopts the measure that setting the enemies for targets and eliminating them in their own place. Stopping the violence with violence occurs frequently. The situation is in turmoil. Thirdly, preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, especially the struggle about Iran's nuclear becomes another hot issue in the Middle East. From this we can see, the Middle East is unstable which can be chiefly reflected by three hot issues: Palestinian-Israel conflicts, Iranian nuclear issue and Iraqi turmoil.Secondly, I analyzed the influence of American policy for the Middle East. I chiefly analyzed the influence of American military occupation, the reformation of democracy and the policy for Palestinian-Israel issue. The Iraq War made the original geo-political and each religion sect's power change a lot. It also aroused a strong mood of anti-America and anti-Israel in Islamic world. Islamic world opposed to American policy of reformation of democracy because American mixed up the terrorism and Islamic culture and their anti-American mood was serious. People in the Middle East thought that the true purpose of American reformation of democracy was protecting American benefits and keeping Israel's security. American function in Palestinian-Israeli issue is very important. Because America always shields Israel, the contradiction of Israel and Palestine can't be reconciled. So it is impossible to realize peace in the Middle East in a short time.In conclusion, the contradictions in the Middle East are very complex and the situation changes frequently. Why the situation in the Middle East is so unstable? There are deep history and society reasons. But the chief reason is still American policy for it. So if we want to research the problems in the Middle East, we must research American policy for it. Now our Chinese comprehensive national power is strengthening and our international influence is enhancing. So we will more deeply develop our contacts with the countries in the Middle East. We should get to know and master other countries'policies towards the Middle East and the Middle East's relationships with other countries. We should view and master the main contradictions in the Middle East from all perspectives and all fields. This can help us to provide some advices for our decision-making departments.