[Bilimsel Haber] A Strained Partnership: European-American Relations and the Middle East from Suez to Iraq

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

A Strained Partnership:
European-American Relations and the Middle East from Suez to Iraq

An international conference in Zurich/Switzerland, 7-9 September 2006

Convened by the Center for Security Studies (CSS)
ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich)
Andreas Wenger, Victor Mauer, Daniel Möckli

In association with The Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact
(PHP)

Divergent views on the justification and legitimacy of the Iraq War in 
2003 have
caused a deep rift in transatlantic relations from which the Western 
Alliance
has yet to recover. However, as remarkable as this crisis has been in 
terms of
its intensity and consequences, it merely represents the latest in a whole
series of intra-Western controversies over the Middle East. In fact, the 
issue
of how to deal with the Middle East has constituted a major source of
European-American tension since the beginnings of the transatlantic 
partnership
in the late 1940s. The Suez Crisis of 1956, the October War in 1973, and the
recent Iraq War constitute only three of the most prominent examples of what
appears to be a dominant pattern of allied conflict about the right kind of
policies and approaches towards the Middle East. What is more, as most 
of the
major security risks today relate in some way or other to the “crisis
crescent” of the Southern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf 
region, the
Middle East is bound to stay at the forefront of attention of Western
policy-makers and will remain a key determinant of European-American 
relations
for the foreseeable future.

Against this background, the conference aims at placing the current
transatlantic strain over Iraq into a wider perspective. Its main 
objective is
to trace the Western debates regarding the Middle East since 1948/49 and to
identify the major causes and constellations of allied discord and 
cooperation
over time. We seek to determine essential elements of continuity and change
concerning European and US interests, threat assessments, and policy
preferences, relating to either the region at large or individual key issues
such as Gulf security or the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The conference hopes to bring together historians and political analysts 
with
expertise on particular incidents and topics regarding allied conflict and
cooperation over the Middle East. Papers should either deal with a 
relevant case
study or cover the evolution of intra-Western perceptions of a given 
Middle East
issue over time. Authors are urged to avoid too narrow approaches. They 
should
apply a multilateral perspective to their analysis and put their specific
findings into the bigger context of the overall conference theme. While
intra-European differences regarding the Middle East are important and 
may be
addressed, the main focus should be on the European-American dimension. 
Please
note that the conference is not about the Middle East as such, but 
rather about
its significance for transatlantic relations.

Possible topics to address include:

I. Gulf security and transatlantic relations
- The allies and the Gulf during the early Cold War
- The 1970s and 1980s: Western responses to the Iranian Revolution, the
Iran-Iraq War, and the growing regional presence of the Soviet Union
- Operation Desert Storm 1990/91: A brief moment of unity?
- Dual containment (of Iran and Iraq) and its discontents: The 1990s
- The Iraq War 2003: The Alliance at the crossroads
- Dealing with Iran and its nuclear program

II. The Arab-Israeli conflict: What role for Europe?
- The allies and the Middle East conflict during the early Cold War
- The Six-Day War 1967: Realignments within the West
- The October War and the Oil Crisis, 1973/74: Kissinger, Europe, and 
the Middle
East
- European-US differences over the Arab-Israeli conflict in the later 
1970s and
the 1980s
- The Peace Process in the 1990s: European-US commonality and divisions
- The Middle East Quartet: A new role for Europe?

III. NATO and the Middle East: The evolving out-of-area debate
- European colonial interests and US East-West prerogatives - the early 
Cold War
period (e.g., NATO and the defense of the Middle East 1948-55, the 
Algerian War,
the Suez Crisis 1956, Lebanon/Jordan 1958)
- US claims to leadership and calls for burden-sharing - from the 1960s 
to the
end of the Cold War
- From a non-policy to pragmatic consensus? NATO and the Middle East in the
1990s
- NATO and the War on Terror in the Middle East - the early 21st century

IV. Other key themes in long-term perspective
- The evolution of European and US concepts for regional order
- Energy and security: Diverging oil dependencies and allied policies 
vis-à-vis
the Middle East
- The West and the military balance in the Middle East: Arms sales and arms
control
- WMD and Western counter-proliferation policies

The deadline for paper proposals is 28 February 2006. Proposals should 
include a
title, a one-page outline, and a short CV of the author. There will be 
about 20
papers/speakers. Authors will be notified whether their proposal has been
accepted by the end of March 2006. Draft papers will have to be 
submitted by 13
August 2006, to allow for their distribution to all the participants 
prior to
the conference.

At the conference itself, authors will summarize their papers in oral
presentations of up to 15-minute duration, strictly enforced by the 
chairperson
of each session, thus allowing enough time for substantive discussion 
stimulated
by the papers.

A publication of the conference papers is envisaged. Participants will 
receive a
financial contribution to cover their transport and accommodation costs for
their stay in Zurich.

Please submit proposals by e-mail, if possible, or send by air mail to:

Daniel Möckli
Senior Researcher
Center for Security Studies
ETH Zurich WEC
CH-8092 Zürich
Switzerland

Email: moeckli@sipo.gess.ethz.ch
Phone: ++41 44 632 78 70
Fax: ++41 44 632 13 72


Visit the website at http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/