Ethnic divides in the Arab world
Regional, Analysis, 9/16/1997

Because of the Arab region's unique strategic location as well as resources, especially oil, and natural gas, the Arab world--especially the Gulf states--has been a target of domination by several foreign powers over the last two centuries. Several structural weaknesses in the Arab region were accentuated by such powers to enhance their hegemonic designs. The ethnic question has been one of those weaknesses.

In the latter 18th century, rival western powers scrambled for a client sponsorship of various ethnic groups that lived in the provinces of the declining Ottoman Empire, the "Sick Man of Europe." This was to be a pretext for possible in hesitance of such provinces upon the final demise of the "Sick Man. "

A case in point was France's sponsorship of the Christian Maronites and Britain's of the Druse Muslims, all in one Arab-Ottoman province: greater Syria (including Mount Lebanon).

On the whole, ethnic groups in the Arab world remained long reluctant and skeptical of such unsolicited guardianship from foreign powers. But as corruption and despotism in the ailing Ottoman empire reached an all-time high, some of these groups accepted such guardianships for protection--not only against the central authorities but also against real or perceived threats from other indigenous ethnic groups at home.

The nineteenth century pattern of powerful states meddling in the Arab world's ethnic affairs would continue into the twentieth century, under direct colonial rule of fragmented Arab parties, as well as after their formal independence.

The intervening states varied during the two centuries, but the pattern has remained essentially the same. After World War II, with more independent or new states in the Arab-Middle East, several regional actors have also gotten involved, often by proxy, in the ethnic affairs of one another.

Notorious among the latter were Israel (in Lebanon, Iraq, and the Sudan), Iran (in Iraq and Lebanon), and Ethiopia (in the Sudan). Likewise, at times some Arab states meddled in the ethnic questions of neighboring Arab and non-Arab states (e.g. Syria in Lebanon and Iraq, Iraq in Lebanon, Syria in Iran, Sudan In Ethiopia).

The big superpower rivalry during the cold war (1945-1995) added an extra complicating dimension of ideology to the meddling in the Arab world's ethnic questions.

At times, factions of the same ethnic group were as much in conflict with each other as were their external patrons, regional or global.

Rarely did the external factor alone trigger serious ethnic conflicts. Responsible for such conflicts, primarily, were indigenous factors of political, socio-economic, or cultural natures.

What the external factor did was to intensively complicate and protract such conflicts. This is especially the case in armed ethnic conflicts, which tend, over time, to create a political economy and a sub-political culture of their own, far beyond the original issues of the conflict.

The civil wars in Lebanon, Sudan, and Iraq are dramatic cases in point. At present, Iraq is de facto divided into three zones--two in the north (Kurds) and south (Shi'ites) with limited control by the central government in Baghdad.

Only the middle zone (about half of Iraq) has been under the total control of the Iraqi government since its defeat in the Gulf war (1991). The other two zones are protected by UN western Allies orders. So much is this case that the "protected zone" in the north felt secure enough to elect in 1992 its own Kurdish parliament and has its own government.

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