The Politics of Mass Violence in the Middle East

by Laura Robson

The Middle East today is characterized by an astonishingly bloody civil war in Syria, an ever more highly racialized and militarized approach to the concept of a Jewish state in Israel and the Palestinian territories, an Iraqi state paralyzed by the emergence of class- and region-inflected sectarian identifications, a Lebanon teetering on the edge of collapse from the pressures of its huge numbers of refugees and its sect-bound political system, and the rise of a wide variety of Islamist paramilitary organizations seeking to operate outside all these states.

The region's emergence as a 'zone of violence', characterized by a viciously dystopian politics of identity, is a relatively recent phenomenon, developing only over the past century; but despite these shallow historical roots, the mass violence and dispossession now characterizing Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, and Iraq have emerged as some of the twenty-first century's most intractable problems. In this study, Laura Robson uses a framework of mass violence - encompassing the concepts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, forced migration, appropriation of resources, mass deportation, and forcible denationalization - to explain the emergence of a dystopian politics of identity across the Eastern Mediterranean in the modern era and to illuminate the contemporary breakdown of the state from Syria to Iraq to Israel.

Genres: History, Audiobook

246 pages, Hardcover

Published November 9, 2020

Reviews

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This recent monograph, from the eminent Laura Robson, offers a comprehensive examination on the nature of violence in the modern Middle East. She presents a chronological account of the way in which external and internal actors have used mass violence to their various ends since the late-Ottoman era. 20th century violence, she notes in the introduction, was 'not merely an atavistic impulse, a sign of societal breakdown, a descent into chaos, but a political decision: a deliberate strategy, undertaken by identifiable actors at particular times with specific purposes' (p.1).

Robson's analysis looks at the specifically identitarian nature of violence (or, perhaps more accurately, the violent nature of identitarianism) in the 20th century Mashriq, using 'a framework of mass violence - encompassing the concepts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, forced migration, appropriation of resources, mass imprisonment, and forcible denationalization - to explain the emergence of a dystopian politics of identity' (p.5) across the region. Central to this is the observation, borrowed from historian Charles Maier, that the most fundamental marker of the 20th century was territoriality. That is, 'the saturation of territory with the mechanics of power' (p.6). Indeed, although Maier argues such territoriality was a more impactful force than nationalism, it could be argued that such an understanding of territoriality was, in fact, central to nationalism.

Well entrenched by the end of the colonial mandates in the region (p.7), Maier's argument informs Robson's critical observation that violence in the modern Middle East was characterised by the territorialisation of identity, embodied in the variety of forced expulsions, ethnic cleansings, and invasions witnessed during the past century.

This territorialisation of identity was indeed embodied in two of the most impactful events of the past 120 years in the Middle East: the Hashemite Arab Revolt and the Balfour Declaration. The former, she aptly argues, stemming from 'precisely the kind of ethnically conscious colonial strategies that the British were employing elsewhere (p.49), the latter legitimising and offering international support for the territorialisation of European Jewish identity, resonating with ethno-nationalisms and setting the stage for 'violent forms of national purification' (p.52). Colonial rule served to introduce sectarian divides which 'would be reflected in and reinforced by colonial patterns of communally determined legislative and judicial representation' (p.85). These, along with the extreme territorialisation of identity in Lebanon and Syria, made it impossible that any other power-sharing arrangements could emerge except those reflecting a zero-sum game (p.67). This continued later with Ba'athist violence against Kurds and Muslims in both Syria and Iraq (p.146), as well.

Robson should be commended for including Israel within her analysis, and for demonstrating how its own authoritarian bent, cultural militarism and domestic oppression against Palestinians (p.143) - notwithstanding the fact it definitely is more democratic than its neighbours - nevertheless make it less of a regional outlier than is often imagined. Other interesting observations were the assertion that many of the fascist movements characterising the late 30s and early 40s, such as that of the SSNP, weren't as ideologically motivated by ethnocentric and racist ideals as they were the allure of authoritarian stability in light of the failure of imperialist liberalism (p.83), as well as the important point that many Jewish communities within the Arab world were in fact anti-Zionist right into the 50s and beyond.

There are shortcomings. The decades following the First Intifadah are rushed over (though the overview of the Intifidah is itself very good), little space is given to Israeli settlement building, as well as partitionist proposals in Syria and Iraq (which seem to have a bearing on the territorialised nature of violence that Robson discusses), and she seems to lend support to the contentious narrative that ISIL's support base consisted primarily of disaffected former Ba'athists. And, of course, one can validly point out that violence in the Mashriq region it not solely a recent phenomenon. Robson doesn't justify her focus on the era of modernity, but the pre-Hamidian era simply isn't the scope this book is aimed at. And that's fine.

This is a highly commendable book, offering insightful analysis on the hitherto neglected aspect of territoriality and its interaction with identity and power in the modern era.

[Jurij Fedorov · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title and topic is too misleading for this to be a slam dunk.

The American author is so overly focused on Western powers that you wonder what the book is about? She overlooks Middle East nations and instead focuses on France, USA, Britian, Israel. I was seeking a book to understand how the Middle East settles cultural and religious tribal conflicts and what tools they use that are considered war crimes. Instead I get yet another book about the West.

Another issue is how many events and conflicts she forces into her war crime category by ommiting facts and history. It can't recall reading a history book that skips any counter argument this way. Britain in Mandatory Palestine is presented like some sort of evil empire from a movie with no focus on anything besides the violence. No explanation of what they may have stopped by doing it or how the society overall worked. How do I understand their war with Arabs without understanding the British point of view? I was waiting for her to get into the war crimes of Arab armies and how Nazi Germany worked with Palestine Arabs in the region to unsurp the British Allies. The Nazi storyline is skipped as that would go against her thesis. Which obviously will leave most readers confused. It was like torture was a hobby for Britain for no good reason.

Israel takes up a big part of the book always in a very negative light. Yet again we don't really read about their culture or goals unless it's some evil intention. She finds plenty of quotes where some Israeli leader said something offensive about Muslims or Arabs. Yet no quote about the motivation without this. Did they want areas to better defend Israel from? Did they want to remove a village with a terrorist stronghold? Nope, they just love killing for ... the sake of killing? When she explains how the Iran-Iraq war started she goes on a very long rant basically saying it's multiple factors. We never understand motivations. These explanations are potentially written with ChatGPT that tries to fill out pages with fluffy words.

We largely skip the dictatorial regimes you have heard about with civil wars, imprisonments, no free speech, torture, and huge prisons. She will write 10 pages about how evil Britian was then give us a single war crime statement about a actual Middle Eastern regime in a very apologetic tone as if it doesn't even matter in comparison with the huge Western influence. Ignoring any and all movements, religions, cultures, tribes in the process. If you don't know about the Middle East you won't learn anything either. It's a shame as the region contains some of the most interesting groups on the planet like Kurds, Persians, Druze, Bedouins. Did they do nothing?

This is exactly why her thesis falls apart. It never really feels lile she's being fair and balanced. It always feels like a message from some overly political pundit. She writes the democratic powers as hateful and evil to their core without explaining why she makes this assumption. From reading it she just seems against any Western influence in the Middle East. Fully against Israel, Britain, and USA. As if they don't belong there. Yet she doesn't explain why. So even her thesis fails as she is too afraid to explain why she may despise Israel and the 2 main supporters. Because of the violence? Many other regimes are violent. It's because of it being outsider violence? Then make a case for it.

I would have enjoyed it much more if it was presented as an opinion piece maybe published by a biased anti-Western newspaper to make it clear what this actually is. As a history books it feels off. Forced history like this never quite feels proper. Maybe if I didn't know anything about the Middle East or fully agreed with her biases I'd enjoy it more in my shear ignorance?

If you want to read a book attacking Western democracies there are better ones out there. I actually do want to learn more about this topic. Maybe US influence in South America. It's curious stuff for sure if it's presented in a more engaging way.