Feb. 27 Notes

U.S. and the Middle East

The Interwar Era

27 February 2008

I. The United States, the Middle East, and World War I

1. Nature of War (Turkish war aims, Gallipoli campaign, Armenian genocide)

2. The United States and the Armenian Genocide (Wilson concerns, role of Morgenthau)

3. Wilson, the Middle East, and the War (Ottoman Empire in 14 Points; Zionist movement; Wilsonian rhetoric—ideals and reality: Egypt, Armenia, mandates)

II. Aftermath of War

1. The Rise & Fall of the Sèvres System (Wilson’s political and personal collapse—Versailles debate, “Swing around the circle,” stroke and incapacitation; path to Sèvres: tension between self-determination and aggrandizement, Greek and Italian demands; treaty and Turkish reaction—Armenian and Greek wars, role of Ataturk, reaching out to USSR; Lausanne and quiet US support for Turks—population exchanges, fates of Kurds and Armenians; long-term effects)

2. The Origins of Oil Diplomacy (strategic effects of World War I: tanks and planes; Iraq and development of Red Line Agreement—Hoover and BFDC: oil access as part of international agenda; British reaction—strategic realities and imperial pretensions, development of Western cartel?)

3. Beyond the Red Line Agreement (exclusion of Iran, emergence of Saudi Arabia: Ibn Saud and postwar world; isolationism and 1920s approach; significance of Depression; reaching out to US; Standard Oil, ARAMCO, and origins of US-Saudi alliance)

III. Road to World War II

1. Origins of War (flashpoints: Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey; Hitler and the Middle East—strategic: opening to Iraq, interest in Egypt; racial—Grand Mufti, Jewish/Arab tensions; British retreat from Balfour Declaration; Turkish neutrality; significance of Iran)

2. US and the Run-up to War (FDR strategic vision; domestic non-interventionism—isolationists, labor and immigration; strategic realities—“quarantine” speech, Welles mission, hostility of Chamberlain and negotiation of Munich agreement; the US and the Jewish question: USOC and Nazi Olympics, Jewish refugees—Morganthau, Ickes, and Eleanor Roosevelt vs. labor, State Department, FDR search for compromise—Alaska solution?, Dominican Republic idea; suspicion of Jewish leaders)

3. Middle East and Start of World War II (Nazi-Soviet Pact and invasion of Poland; fall of France and rise of Churchill; Italian entrance into war; Mussolini vision of new Roman Empire—Ethiopian, Albanian, Greek campaigns—pulling Germany into Balkans)

Feb. 27 Documents

State Department and wartime refugees

State Department on the Red Line agreement

Treasury Department report condemning US foreign policy toward Jews in occupied Europe

Feb. 25 Handout

U.S. and the Middle East

World War I

25 February 2008

I. 18^th and 19^th Century Contacts

1. Strategic Uncertainties (foundations of US foreign policy; the Barbary Wars and their effects; Greece, Turkey, and the origins of Monroe Doctrine)

2. Commercial and Cultural Contacts (US approach to the world—commercial treaties, missionaries, Northeastern-centered)

3. The international Transformation of the Middle East (U.S. withdrawal; path to World War I and Ottoman decline, Balkan Wars)

II. World War I

1. Middle East and the Grand Strategy of War (historiographical interpretations of war; alliance system and conflict; mindsets of Great Powers; “use-it-or-lose-it” concept; diplomatic incompetence; Great Power interest in Middle East: Britain and run-up to Fashoda, importance of Egypt, division of North Africa; Kaiser and Berlin-to-Baghdad railroad, envisioning protectorate?; role of the Balkans in World War I—Serbia/Montenegro front, Greek entrance and role of British, Romanian collapse, continuing power vacuum)

2. The Turks and World War I (development of Turkish-German rapprochement; Turkish decision for war and domestic politics; Turkish war aims; Russia, the Czar, and appeals to Armeniaàpath to Sarikamiş; Churchill, Britain, and the Middle East: strategic questions—maintain integrity of OE?, role of the Hejaz; fateful decisions: Gallipoli, significance of Lord Kirchener, backing Emir Hussein; Young Turks and Armenian genocide)

3. The United States and the Armenian Genocide (international reaction: Turkish fears, German recalcitrance; Allied declaration of “crimes against humanity”; Wilson concerns—international law, fate of American missionaries and religious colleges, role of Lansing; significance of Robert Morgenthau response—“a campaign of race extermination is in progress”; New York Times and American press; collapse of relationship)

4. Wilson, the Middle East, and the War (fate of Turkey: Ottoman Empire in 14 Points; road to Balfour Declaration: Sykes-Picot and British-French diplomacy; significance of Lloyd George: Suez and British strategic desires, expansion from Iraq as war aim to Iraq and Palestine; nationalism and general Allied policy; US response to Balfour Declaration—weakness of movement, importance of Brandeis, Wilson and self-determination)

5. The League and the Middle East (Wilsonian rhetoric—ideals and reality: Egypt, Armenia, naïveté of Inquiry; origins of the mandate system; L-G initially tries to play off US against French, Greeks, Italians; idea of Armenian mandate, Senate and peace progressives)

Group Meeting Times

Iran group: Wednesday, 2pm

Group Memberships

Syria/Lebanon (May 19)

Daniel Greenberg

Celia Zeilberger

Yael Marwati

Tamar Yechezkell

Shoshana Kedem

Saudi Arabia & the Gulf States (May 21)

Michael Khasin

Frank Znaty

Dennis Mitzner

Yoan Smadja

Samantha Hendel

Israel & the Palestinian Territories (May 26)

Ben Moscovitch

Jeremy Brown

Josh Goodman

Eli Sperling

Liran Goldman

Afghanistan/Pakistan (May 28)

Jesse Sneddon

Leah Salloway

Natalie Knazik

Adi Pincovici

Egypt & North Africa (June 2)

Irena Fliter

Lukas Brenowitz

Jennifer Perry

Sarah Marois

Iran (June 4)

Joe Costa

Ariel Solomon

Karyn Leffel

Drew Banks

Feb. 20 Handout

18^th and 19^th Century Contacts

20 February 2008

I. Strategic Uncertainty

1. The United States, the Middle East, and the 18^th Century World (Euroecentric world: France and Britain as superpowers; US independence and importance of international assistance, U.S. and Western Hemisphere—race, religion, economic ties, intellectual exchange; Ottoman Empire and “imperial overstretch”: European difficulties, Russian and Austrian rivalries; Napoleonic wars and Egypt, difficulties with North Africa)

2. The Barbary Wars (independence, the Treaty of Paris, and post-independence trade disruptions; strategic weaknesses of Articles government; early debates and anti-militarist attitudes; the First Party system and the Navy; diplomatic incompetence; tensions with Tripoli and Tunis; Jefferson and tension between realism/idealism; Jefferson and presidential power; nature of war and aftermath; growth of British power in the Mediterranean)

II. U.S. Expansion

1. Commerce and the Levant (commerce and the Northeastern economy; role of East Asia; United States as counterpoint to Britain; interest in Turkey Persia, Egypt; limited nature overall commerce)

2. The United States Encounters the Ottoman Empire (image of the infidel; origins of Greek revolt; American sympathy and sectional divisions; J.Q. Adams, presidential ambitions, and origins of Monroe Doctrine; Turkish strategic needs; road to commercial treaty; signing of 1830 treaty and secret codicil; Persian treaty)

3. Missionaries (the Ottomans and religious minorities; creation of ABFM; fundraising and the Second Great Awakening; American interest in the Holy Land, Smyrna, Beirut; beyond religion: printing press, education; emergence of Armenia; gradual expansion; other forms of cultural influence: Kossuth and Americanism)

III. U.S. Withdrawal

1. Civil War and U.S. Foreign Policy (sectional divisions and constitutional debates; emergence of Congress and turn inwards; termination of Mediterranean Fleet; U.S. irrelevancy and European imperialism; United States and Armenia—decline of the missionary impulse, Chinese temptation)

2. The Path to World War I (Congress of Berlin and redefining Balkan boundaries; Algeciras and looming British-French-German battles; Ottoman crisis—1908 Young Turks, Bosnian annexation; First and Second Balkan Wars and decline of Turkish power; expanding British presence)

Year	1865	1875	1890	1900
US exports/OE	$614,187	4,224,918	4,624,818	7,743,676
US imports/OE	$326,958	579,947	129,833	573,012

Introduction

Introduction

18 February 2008

Office: Rosenberg 108

M: 1-2; W 1-3; or by appointment

kcjohnson9@gmail.com

I. Course Structure

1. Requirements

2. Structure

II. Time Periods

1. Through World War II: 1783-1945

(US and a Revolutionary World; initial contacts: strategic, economic, cultural; 19^th century contacts and US retreat; World War I and Wilsonianism—self-determination, origins of mandate system, role of League of Nations, transformation US economic policy; World War II—US and Jewish refugees, strategic concerns and North African campaign; the Big Three and battles over postwar colonialism)

2. Aftermath of War: 1945-1960

(Middle East and postwar world—British, US, Soviet desires; tensions in the Northern Tier—Iranian crisis, Britain and Turkey, origins of Truman Doctrine; Truman and the recognition of Israel—moral concerns, political concerns, strategic concerns; from Truman to Eisenhower: covert operations and Iranian coup; oil diplomacy and Eisenhower Doctrine; US and Algerian civil war)

3. Transition Years: 1960-1973

(Kennedy and redefining the Israeli alliance, Dimona and nuclear diplomacy; LBJ: domestic and international constraints, role of Vietnam, US and Six Days’ War; Nixon & Kissinger: realpolitik and redefining the Cold War, limits of the imperial presidency, the US and the 1973 war, the origins of OPEC)

4. Realignments: 1974-1989

(congressional power, the Eagleton amendment, and strains on the Turkish alliance; Carter and foreign arms sales; Camp David and Carter successes; Iran and Carter failures; Reagan: balancing Saudi Arabia and Israel, Charlie Wilson and origins of US involvement in Afghanistan, Iran-Iraq war, Lebanon fiasco, origins of Iran-contra affair)

5. Beyond the Cold War: 1990-present

(Saddam and the invasion of Kuwait; Bush I, the Saudi alliance, and the First Gulf War; end of war and a missed opportunity?; Bosnia and limits of Bush vision; Clinton and Arab/Israeli peace process; Clinton and bin Laden—international difficulties, domestic constraints; terrorism as law enforcement or foreign policy issue?; Bush years—Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Iranian tensions, strains with Turkey and Saudi Arabia)