Peace through more Military and Arms?

Abstract

Throughout recorded history, the Middle East has been the arena for sweeping military encounters. Enduring geopolitical struggles between the two great river systems — the Nile and the Tigris/Euphrates — date back to the Pharaonic and Babylonian dynasties. As perhaps the world’s most important crossroad, the area has been fought over by Greeks, Romans, Assyrians, Persians, Turks Mongols, Crusaders and, latterly, the imperial powers of nineteenth-century Europe. As Islam spread across this area in the eighth and ninth centuries, it was carried, so to speak, in the saddlebags of Muslim generals.