Respected and Suspected: Middle Eastern Perceptions of China’s Rise

Abstract

As post-World War II international relations have became polarized into two competing blocs, Middle Eastern countries had a choice, sometimes real and sometimes virtual, of identifying with one or the other. To some extent this was not a free choice. It was conditioned by the fact that the two systems had been asymmetric primarily in historical terms. While one system was headed by a newcomer - the Soviet Union, absent from the Middle East until World War II - the other system, headed by the United States, while also largely absent from the region, has never been less committed to preserving Western legacies and even more so assets. Some Middle Eastern countries ultimately opted to remain under the Western umbrella - like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf countries, Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan - a position held to this very day. Others preferred to associate with the Eastern bloc - first the Soviet Union and then Russia - also held to this very day (such as Syria, Yemen, and Sudan). Still others have switched sides - more than once, like Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.