The Middle East and the Making of the Modern World


Book Description

In The Middle East and the Making of the Modern World, Cyrus Schayegh takes up a fundamental problem historians face: how to make sense of the spatial layeredness of the past. He argues that the modern world’s ultimate socio-spatial feature was not the oft-studied processes of globalization or state formation or urbanization. Rather, it was fast-paced, mutually transformative intertwinements of cities, regions, states, and global circuits, a bundle of processes he calls transpatialization. To make this case, Schayegh’s study pivots around Greater Syria (Bilad al-Sham in Arabic), which is roughly coextensive with present-day Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel/Palestine. From this region, Schayegh looks beyond, to imperial and global connections, diaspora communities, and neighboring Egypt, Iraq, and Turkey. And he peers deeply into Bilad al-Sham: at cities and their ties, and at global economic forces, the Ottoman and European empire-states, and the post-Ottoman nation-states at work within the region. He shows how diverse socio-spatial intertwinements unfolded in tandem during a transformative stretch of time, the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, and concludes with a postscript covering the 1940s to 2010s.







A History of Middle East Economies in the Twentieth Century


Book Description

This text offers an examination of the economic history of the principal Arab countries, Turkey and Israel since 1918. Using the state as its major economic analysis, it charts the growth of national income and issues of welfare and distribution over two periods, 1918-1945 and 1945-1990. Important trends are explored, including the patterns of colonial economic management, import substitution, the impact of the 1970s oil boom, and the current process of liberalization and structural adjustment







God's Diplomats


Book Description

[God’s Diplomats is] a mix of impartial description and informed opinion. Not everyone will agree with how different issues are framed, or how different figures are portrayed. But what certainly cannot be argued with is the fact that Gaetan has given a gift not only to foreign policy practitioners, but also to American Catholics. You will not find a book on Church diplomacy as accessible, comprehensive, and faithful, as God’s Diplomats. It is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the Vatican’s diplomatic priorities better — and especially why they don’t always align with America’s. ― National Catholic Register Using inside sources and extensive field reporting about the secretive, high-stakes world of international diplomacy, Vatican reporter Victor Gaetan takes readers to the Holy See to explicate Pope Francis's diplomacy, show why it works, and to offer readers a startling contrast to the dangerous inadequacies of recent U.S. international decisions.




Facing the Emergence of the Modern Middle East


Book Description

Pope Benedict XV's pontificate (1914-1922), misunderstood by his contemporaries and neglected by recent scholarship, coincides with the reshaping of the Middle East, from the beginning of World War One to the assignment of Mandates to France and Britain over Syria and Palestine. This study examines Benedict XV's diplomacy in Greater Syria. Its unique aspect resides in the combination of two approaches. Benedict's main priority was to ensure the survival of Christians in the Middle East, providing them with a dynamic ecclesiological structure. The pontiff completed and institutionalized the traditional ecclesiological approach in favor of unionism, with the goal to strengthen the ecclesial structures of the Eastern churches and equip them with solid legal foundations. This ecclesiological approach was integrated in Benedict XV's global geo-political vision that shifted away from its past Eurocentric vision and was combined with an anticipation of the decolonization era. Benedict completed these guiding principles with a policy of emancipation of the missionary world from the bondage of colonial powers, preparing the Church for an active role in the world. These principles were implemented in Syria-Lebanon, as Benedict XV navigated between the pressure of French imperialism and Prince Feisal's Arab nationalism, as well as in Palestine, dominated by the tension between Britain and France, the implementation of a Jewish national home, and the proselytizing of Protestant missions. The core of the dissertation, which stands at the confluence of Church history, international politics, and law, rests upon a historically critical evaluation of documents found in the Vatican Secret Archives, the Archives of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, and of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome, Italy. Benedict XV reigned during a decade that shook the world. He witnessed, in Greater Syria, events that had tremendous historical, religious, and political implications for the future of the region and our understanding of the unending turmoil affecting the Middle East a century later. Pope Benedict emerges as a wise pontiff, a skilled geo-politician, well ahead of his time. This dissertation is the first regional study of Pope Benedict's diplomatic endeavors.




The Vatican and Permanent Neutrality


Book Description

The essays in this book cover a fast-paced 150 years of Vatican diplomacy, starting from the fall of the Papal States in 1870 to the present day. They trace the transformation of the Vatican from a state like any other to an entity uniquely providing spiritual and moral sustenance in world affairs. In particular, the book details the Holy See’s use of neutrality as a tool and the principal statecraft in its diplomatic portmanteau. This concept of “permanent neutrality,” as codified in the Lateran Treaties of 1929, is a central concept adding to the Vatican's uniqueness and, as a result, the analysis of its policies does not easily fit within standard international relations or foreign policy scholarship. These essays consider in detail the Vatican’s history with “permanent neutrality” and its application in diplomacy toward delicate situations as, for instance, vis a vis Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan, but also in the international relations of the Cold War in debates about nuclear non-proliferation, or outreach toward the third world, including Cuba and Venezuela. The book also considers the ineluctable tension between pastoral teachings and realpolitik, as the church faces a reckoning with its history.




Eastern Christianity in the Modern Middle East


Book Description

The Middle East is the birthplace of Christianity and the home to a number of Eastern Churches with millions of followers. This book provides a comprehensive survey of the various denominations in the modern Middle East and will be of interest to a wide variety of scholars and students studying theology, history and politics.




The Middle East Under Rome


Book Description

The ancient Middle East was the theater of passionate interaction between Phoenicians, Aramaeans, Arabs, Jews, Greeks, and Romans. At the crossroads of the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, and the Arabian peninsula, the area dominated by what the Romans called Syria was at times a scene of violent confrontation, but more often one of peaceful interaction, of prosperous cultivation, energetic production, and commerce--a crucible of cultural, religious, and artistic innovations that profoundly determined the course of world history. Maurice Sartre has written a long overdue and comprehensive history of the Semitic Near East (modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel) from the eve of the Roman conquest to the end of the third century C.E. and the dramatic rise of Christianity. Sartre's broad yet finely detailed perspective takes in all aspects of this history, not just the political and military, but economic, social, cultural, and religious developments as well. He devotes particular attention to the history of the Jewish people, placing it within that of the whole Middle East. Drawing upon the full range of ancient sources, including literary texts, Greek, Latin, and Semitic inscriptions, and the most recent archaeological discoveries, The Middle East under Rome will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars. This absorbing account of intense cultural interaction will also engage anyone interested in the history of the Middle East.