Abstract
Towards A Westphalia for the Middle East utilizes the historical experiences gained from the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) and the Peace of Westphalia (1648) to understand the contemporary challenges of the Middle East and provide recommendations to find solutions. The book is an outcome of the project “Westphalia for the Middle East” funded by the Forum on Geopolitics, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
The book is divided into three parts; Challenge, Histories and Solutions with two chapters each. In the first part, the authors introduce the subject reflecting upon the relevance of the Thirty Years’ War and the Peace of Westphalia within the context of the contemporary challenges facing the Middle East. They draw a comparison between the early-seventeenth century Europe and the twenty-first century Middle East. The parallel drawn between early modern Europe and contemporary Middle East is striking for the kind of similarities they are able to underline. The book deconstructs the core ideas of the Peace of Westphalia and assesses its achievements. It discusses the evolving situation in the Middle East, especially since 2011, and underlines the challenges facing these polities including the problem of legitimacy deficit the authoritarian rulers of the region faced and the sectarian undertone in the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The second part of the book focuses on the historical episodes which shaped Europe from 1618 to 1648 and afterwards. After the protestant reformation, Europe had to witness multiple religious and political upheavals. The book discusses historical events from the peace of Augsburg (1555) to the end of the Thirty Years’ War including its four phases: the Bohemian phase, Dutch phase, Swedish phase and French. The sectarian rivalry in the Holy Roman Empire formally began with the bohemian rebellion prompted by the Defenestrations of Prague. This sectarian clash eventually turned Europe into a battleground to serve political aspirations of different dynasties and kingdoms. The authors underline that the Treaty of Westphalia was an outcome of one of the lengthiest peace process in history taking place simultaneously in Munster, a Catholic dominated city and Osnabruck, a city dominated by the Lutherans. There were different primary, secondary, and tertiary parties involved in the negotiation and they discussed a long range of issues arriving on the peace treaty.
In the third part, the authors draw five structural parallels by comparing similar variables of the Thirty Years’ War with the contemporary violence in the Middle East. The book highlights the complex nature of the turmoil and shows various typologies of the protracted conflict. There are problems of contested sovereignty that often leads the Middle East towards intra- and inter-state conflicts. The conflicts begin with proxy wars and gets escalated by interests of the external powers and eventually turns into major regional conflict. This situation has been witnessed by the people of the region several times with a never-ending cycle of conflicts. Sometimes it reaches to the situation of conflict fatigue, but smallest instigations lead to escalation, thus escalation and de-escalation of conflicts is a common feature.
Like the Thirty Years’ War, religious and sectarian animosities are important attributes to the tension in the region. Sometimes a tiny local event can lead to horrifying bloodshed. As the authors note that a local protest against President Bashar al-Assad eventually turned into a regional conflict and global crises. As the Thirty Years’ War was a political battleground for different dynasties, the conflicts in the Middle East involve various monarchies. The authors take the example of the Hapsburg Dynasty of Austria who were the followers of Roman Catholicism and wanted to uphold its supremacy in the Europe and the Al-as-Saud Dynasty of Saudi Arabia that advocates for the Sunni Islamic supremacy. Further, the authors underline that the Thirty Years’ War created refugee problem in Europe, the same phenomenon is being witnessed in the case of contemporary turmoil in the Middle East.
The concluding chapter suggests lessons that can be drawn for the Middle East from the Congress of Westphalia underlining the important attributes of peacemaking in Westphalia that can help efforts towards sustainable peace in the Middle East. For example, the peace congress was inclusive in character, thus it generated a sense of acceptability in the eye of the people. However, the authors underline the severe deficit of trust and transparency among the warring parties in the Middle East is quantitatively more than it was in Europe and hence, it is more challenging to brook peace for Middle East.
Westphalia created a successful peace order in Europe, and it has been more than 300 years. The primary values of Westphalian peace were considered as an inspiration by the authors to draw lessons for resolving the contemporary conflicts in the Middle East. The book attempts to frame a post-war regional order in the Middle East with an analogy to the Thirty Years’ War and the Treaty of Westphalia, but in the process ignores some of the most difficult aspects of the nature of the conflict facing the Middle East. The book extensively deliberates about the Thirty Years’ War in Europe but somehow limits itself to define the Middle Eastern conflict within the context of the Syrian crisis, which at best is oversimplification and at worst a lack of understanding of the crises facing the Middle East.
The book evaluates the contemporary situation in the Middle East within the context of the Thirty Years’ War. It contributes to understanding of the complexities of the crises facing the Middle East. Throughout the book, the authors engage the readers with comparative analysis of numerous historical events which happened in the seventeenth century Europe and the present developments in the Middle Eastern region. They further provide a comprehensive historical understanding of peace process in Westphalia and highlight the positives and negatives after the cessation of devastating hostilities. The principle characteristic of the book is to illustrate the fundamental nature of Westphalian peace process and endorse the same perspective to resolve differences in the Middle East. The simplicity of language and analogy make the book lucid and reader friendly.