Spheres of Influence and Human Empowerment

Abstract

Foreign involvement in the Middle East is often more harmful than helpful because it neglects the needs of ordinary people in favor of the geopolitical rivalries and insecurities of would-be Great Powers, including China and many European countries, often creating unexpected ‘domino effects’ on the local populations. Local protests often connect with transnational reform movements to challenge the stranglehold of states and corporations over policy-making, creating direct alliances with reform-minded citizens in the Middle East and around the world.

Globalization and foreign investment have the paradoxical result of generating political turmoil because they accentuate inequality and segregation in the largest cities and further alienate them from the majority of the population in their hinterlands. Self-serving authoritarian rulers are increasingly fearful of mass resistance from organized social groups that are demonstrating impressive skills of collective action.

Multigenerational poverty and social inequality are deeper and more widespread than previously assumed, reinforcing a common belief that local elites and their foreigner partners have abandoned professed goals of human development. Economic disruption often triggers social protest in ways that can only be appreciated when seen through the cultural and historical prisms that shape local perceptions.

Foreign involvement also impacts people indirectly via climate change. Growing water shortages highlight the need to correct long-standing neglect of food production, destructive irrigation practices, and the deterioration of village life. Finally, the few benefits of intercontinental commercial integration are more than offset by the heightened dangers of pervasive militarization in Middle Eastern conflict zones. War and revolution are already widespread and likely to escalate.