This is the second part of the essay: "The quest for the world order." It is recommended to have previously read the first part: "The quest for the world order: Europe."

Chapter 2: The Middle East

As the Roman Empire collapsed in Europe in 476 A.D., in the Middle East the Byzantine Empire emerged, adopting Christianity as a religion and establishing its capital in present day Turkey. This empire sought to consolidate an order in the region, trying to conquer the lands of the East; however, another empire prevented its success, the Persian, who had established its capital in present day Iran and had adopted Zoroastrianism as a religion. Both empires, despite their large domains, had shown little interest in the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia), because it was a region of huge deserts and little resources. However, history would show them with time that this was going to be their biggest mistake...

Willing to become the only empire in the Middle East, in the year 602 A.D. Byzantines and Persians entered a 25-year War, which ended, paradoxically, with the victory of a small tribe from the Arabian Peninsula. At that time, the three great religions that dominated the Middle East were Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, being the latter very similar to the former two. Zoroastrianism based its belief in a God called Mazda, in a destructive spirit called Mainyu, and in a Messiah, called Saoshyant, who would come in the end times to restructure the world. This similarity with Christianity and Judaism won’t help it to last over time and would disappear from the map when a small tribe of the Arabian Peninsula would conquer the Persians in the year 651 A.D. But how was it possible that a small tribe of the Arabian Peninsula defeated the great empires of the Middle East?

It was in the year 610 AD, in the present city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia, that angel Gabriel appeared in front of a 40 years old merchant, called Muhammad, and ordered him to memorize and transmit the word of God, which later was going to become, in its wirtten form, "The Quran." A new vision of order would emerge in the Arabian Peninsula through the structuring of a new religious belief, "Islam," which showed to have similarities with the previous religions, but would differ for the fact that it was transmitted directly by angel Gabriel, in a time where the Peninsula was living in chaos, where the pagan tribes were substantial, and where Christianity and Judaism were hardly noticed.
In its eagerness to spread Islam in a no man's land, the tribe of Muhammad got involved in several battles resulting in outstanding victories despite of the army being numerically inferior to the opponents. These victories, difficult to conceive without divine intervention, exalted Muhammad as the true prophet of God, and in the year 632 A.D., when he died, Muhammad's tribe had conquered the full Arabian Peninsula. In the same period, the 25-year War between Byzantines and Persians had come to an end and had left both empires completely weakened; because of this, Muhammad's successors, called caliphs, were able to conquer these empires and take full control of the Middle East and North Africa in the year 661 A.D., consolidating what history calls "The Islamic Empire." The order had arrived in the region, but it had come under one rule known as jihad, a religious concept written in the Quran, stating that every Muslim must protect Islam. With time, this concept would show that human beings are incompetent entities unable to resolve problems without war, because some muslims would consider jihad to mean that only through war would be possible the preservation and protection of Islam.

History would also show that men only think in a one dimensional way, because the events that impacted Europe would also be repeated in the Middle East... As the Roman Empire collapsed due to the Caesar losing absolute control of his lands, the same happened with the Islamic Empire, although this came mostly because certain groups disagreed with the choice of the caliph. When rebels killed the third caliph in the year 656 A.D., various political parties emerged throughout the empire demanding that the next caliph must be someone from the lineage of Muhammad and not just a disciple of him. Ali ibn Abi Talib was chosen as the fourth caliph and it was with this election that the Islamic Empire was triggered into a civil war that divided Islam in two groups, Shiites and Sunnis, a division that would become a déjà vu 1000 years later when Christianity would be partitioned into Catholics and Protestants. The former group, the Shiites, considered Ali ibn Abi Talib as the only true successor of Muhammad, because he was the prophet’s cousin and was married to his daughter, while the latter group, the Sunnis, believed that Ali was not supposed to be elected as caliph, because it would exalt the lineage of Muhammad as divine.
On the East, the Persians took advantage of these civil wars and reconquered the lands of Iran and Iraq, but in the process they adopted as religion the Shiite version of Islam in the year 819 A.D. The Persians would be conquered by the Mongols in 1221, but would recover their power in the year 1370. In the west, the Turkish tribes were the ones who took advantage of the internal struggles of the Islamic Empire and adopting as religion the Sunni version of Islam consolidated the Ottoman Empire in the year 1453. The Islamic Empire had come to an end but had left as a legacy Islam, as once did the Romans with Christianity.

With the rise of the Ottoman Empire and the revival of the Persian Empire. The XV century marked the beginning of a period where the Middle East was going to be ruled by one religion; however, on one side the West was Sunni and on the other, the East was Shiite. Everything seemed to indicate that a new political-religious war was going to come soon. The Ottoman Empire, under the reign of Sultan Suleyman, was the one who made the first attempt to build a new order in the Middle East. He conquered the Persians in the year 1535 and in 1566 took control of the Balkan Peninsula and North Africa. The Middle East had again reached an order through the consolidation of a single empire, The (Sunni) Ottoman Empire; however, Suleyman sought to reach further and aimed to conquer the European continent; nonetheless, in the same period the Roman Emperor Charles V was accomplishing that task with the support of the Catholic Church. This may be the prelude to what would be a new political-religious war, marked by Islam against Christianity. But by then, it would not materialize by misfortune, as both empires, in the same period, would collapse by themselves after their expansions, proving once again that the bigger the empire becomes, the more difficult it is to maintain absolute control over it.

The VII century marked the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire, who would be involved in wars on both flanks. On the East, the Persians would recover their lands in the year 1618. And on the West, Austria would defeat the Ottoman Empire signing the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. In the same period, Charles V would resign and Europe would become a region of "nations with independent hegemony." This weakened Christianity because it gave freedom to every nation to choose their religious beliefs, thus turning it, gradually, into a philosophical thought with no political power over the nation. This view of Christianity would mark the beginning of a new era between Europe and the Middle East, where visions of order would begin to diverge, leading them in the direction of a possible war, because in the Middle East religion would remain the only tool to consolidate an order... and so would remain until today.

After signing the Treaty of Karlowitz, the Ottoman Empire, over a period of 200 years, was involved in several wars with dramatic loses that led to its decline by the end of World War I in 1918, and after this, the Middle East was plunged into a period of disorder. The countries that won the war appropriated the territorial conquests of the Ottoman Empire - which was renamed Turkey in 1924 - and divided them forming new nations. Syria and Lebanon emerged as Mandates of France, and Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine as Mandates of England. This event, which began with the Sykes-Picot agreement in 1916, would mark the beginning of the European intervention in the Middle East. The vision of order would no longer be in hands of the Arabs but it would rather be imposed by Europe. A situation that would impact as another déjà vu 30 years later, when Europe would lose control of their lands and the vision of order would be left to the United States and the Soviet Union.

Perhaps Europe’s biggest mistake was to start meddling in Middle East’s affairs, imposing by force the Westphalian order in the region, or better said, the order of "nations with independent hegemony," without realizing that the people there had lived a period of 1300 years searching the order through Islam and; therefore, hardly accepting another vision of order from outside, but surely Europe would not regret it until now - where the bombings in Brussels, Paris, and London, which have recently occurred, are just a consequence of these old interventions - because when they had control of the Middle East nations they took advantage of their resources, including oil, which was discovered in the first half of the 20^th century and was to become the primary source of power.
In addition to this, unable to see their own history, European leaders would not envision that the nationalist movement that emerged in the late 19^th century in Europe, would spread to the Middle East and would create a feeling of hatred towards Europe, generating internal conflicts in the nations. It was not until the end of World War II, that European countries decided to partially move away from the Middle East. Mandates of France and England disappeared and Arab countries reached a false autonomy, and it was false because the new rulers were seen as puppets of the West. Everything seemed to indicate that after World War II the Middle East nations would enter a period of civil wars with possible clashes between them; however, an event would trigger them to join their forces and repudiate European leaders even more, the creation of the state of Israel.

When the nationalist movement emerged in Europe, another movement appeared based on this, Zionism, which claimed that the Jews have the full right to establish a state in Jerusalem, because this had always been their home until the 1^st century, when the Roman Empire expelled them in order to consolidate Christianity. The Zionist movement was rarely heard, but after the Holocaust in the hands of Nazi Germany, support towards Zionism rose. England, who had Palestine under its control, and therefore Jerusalem, considered that it was wise to consolidate the Jewish state by partitioning Palestine in two, with the west side becoming "The State of Israel" in 1948. The Arab countries strongly opposed to this, and in the same year they declared war on Israel in support of Palestine. Several wars would emerge years later with no solution until now. Israel would win all of them thanks to the support of the United States, which would emerge as the great power of the West and would see in Israel a good strategic ally to counter the Soviet Union during the Cold War. For this reason, the hatred of the Arab community would extend beyond Europe and reach America. Certain men seeking to establish an Islamic order without Western intervention would shrewdly exploit this feeling and give a coup to their nations in the years to come.

After World War II, the period of the Cold War marked a geopolitical and ideological confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, because of this, the Middle East was fragmented in two camps. Afghanistan, Syria, Algeria, and Iraq would support the Soviet Union, while Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Morocco, would support the United States. The Socialist ideology would expand between the former countries and mingling with Quran’s jihad and the nationalist movement, would give rise to an Arabic movement referred to as "Baaz" or the Islamic Arab Socialist Movement.
In Syria and Iraq this movement would result in a coup to the nations in 1970. Saddam Hussein would take the power in Iraq and Hafez al-Assad would do it in Syria, imposing both a dictatorship. The event would be similar to the French Revolution of 1789 when Napoleon, a French military, gave a coup in France and declared himself the new Consul of the Republic. In 1979, Saddam Hussein would declare himself the new president of the "Islamic - Sunni - State of Iraq" and would govern until 2003, to be later assassinated by the United States in 2006. With his assassination, Russia, ex Soviet Union, would lose an ally in its eternal geopolitical struggle against the United States. On the other hand, events in Syria would last until today. Syria was viewed as an strategic country due to its access to the Sea, its oil reserves, and its magnificent location at the center of the Middle East; therefore, once Hafez al-Assad took control of the country, the Soviet Union offered its unconditional support, whereas the United States seeking to gain geopolitical supremacy over the Soviet Union would offer support to the opposition until today. This foreign intervention continued over the years and would lead to the rise of extremist Islamic groups that seeking to eliminate Western powers in the region would consider that the only way to achieve this would be by going to an eventual Global War. Over the years, several extremist groups would appear in many nations, Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Al-Nursa in Syria, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Islamic State in Iraq, among others.

Similar to the events of 1970, Iran (called Persia until 1934) and Afghanistan would suffer their coups. In 1979 Ruhollah Khomeini would take control of Iran, proclaiming the country to be a Shiite Islamic state and considering its mandate as the first government of God. His radical thought would isolate him from the West, but as the country was immersed in a war against Iraq in 1980 it would receive unconditional support of the United States, who fearing the Soviet Union would try to preserve its geopolitical supremacy at all cost; nonetheless, once the Iran-Iraq war was over, Iran was going to shift to the Soviet Union’s side. Similarly, in Afghanistan, a communist party would take control in 1978; this would not be welcomed by the United States, who not wanting to lose its dominance in the region would support the opposition formed by democratic and radical Islamists. Among them, a radical Islamic group, named Al-Qaeda and led by Osama bin Laden, a billionaire Saudi Arabian expatriate, would make the difference. United States would support him with military arsenal, without realizing that it was giving full support to someone who would lead, 23 years later, the scariest terrorist attack ever recorded in North America. These events clearly demonstrated to the world that the Middle East was never divided between allies of Russia and allies of the United States, but instead it was adopting a particular position solely for political purposes because the only order envisioned by most Arabs was registered in Quran’s jihad, in the preservation and independence of Islam as a religion and as a territory. However, there were nations who sought to join the vision of Westphalia. Such was the case of Egypt, whose leader, Anwar al-Sadat signed a Peace treaty with Israel in 1979; nonetheless, this decision was not welcomed in the Middle East as it reflected an act of treason to Islam; therefore, he was assassinated two years later by radical Islamists.

In 2010 the Arab Spring would come, a phenomenon where Arab communities starting from Tunisia to the East would seek to overthrow their dictatorial governments and establish a democratic system according to the principles of Westphalia. Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen succeeded; but as a result, internal disorder was generated because the Arab community, in its core, was completely divided between Sunnis and Shiites, between pro-westerns and nationalists, between anti-Semites and Zionists, and between democrats and radicals.
Currently, the Middle East is experiencing a period of disorder, driven, unfortunately, by geopolitical conflicts between Russia and the United States. While it is true that the Westphalian model or "nations with independent hegemony" is the right way towards the order, seeing how Europe and the United States have interfered in the internal affairs of the region, is a clear indication that the principles of Westphalia have not been met, and would be fulfilled only if they come for the benefit of the West. Because of this, Russia has entered the game, dividing the Middle East into two parts, those who are in favor of the decisions of Russia and those who remain faithful to North America. Over the last years Iran and Syria have shown an irrevocable alliance to Russia and this would be hardly broken. The West however, to supress Russian’s intentions in a peaceful way, has claimed that Russia is a nation that promotes dictatorships, as Iran and Syria are not considered democratic countries, but this is nothing than a clear example that each power seeks only its own interests, as the most faithful US ally in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia, a monarchical country that is ruled by one family since its establishment, and where the women’s right and lower-class workers’ right are suppressed.

But both will continue playing the game of the good guy, Russia will claim that it supports democracy but if a country has major internal struggles, dictatorships may eventually arise and they should be respected under the principles of Westphalia, whereas the United States will claim that it will always be better to support democracy, and intervention is accepted if a country moves out of this line. Nowadays, all we know is that the Westphalian system is still far from the Arab world.

How could the Middle East achieve order then? The answer of most Arabs is through jihad, which in summary means that the West must abandon its influence in the region and let the Arab nations alone, with their conflicts, internal wars, and dictatorships, in order for them to organize themselves and create the Islamic Union of Independent States. If it took Europe 1500 years to create the European Union after the disintegration of the Roman Empire, then the Middle East should take a reasonable time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1699. But this will never happen, especially knowing that in the East, Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, Pakistan, India, and China already have them, and Japan, a country resentful after World War II, could easily create them too. The future is already settled and there is no way back, the United States will never abandon its influence in the Middle East, because they are convinced that Iran is the biggest threat so far and if they allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon, it will prompt other countries to do it too, countries that may ally to Russia and shutter their supremacy, but also they just cannot go and take control of Iran, because it has support of other nations that they fear, such as Russia and China. On the other hand, Russia is also not willing to move aside, because its leader, Vladimir Putin, is aware that all Europe is against him, and Ukraine, its only ally on the West, is divided into pro-Europeans and pro-Russians; therefore, Putin must stay in the Middle East and seek strategic allies to preserve the hegemony of his country. Because without allies, Russia, most likely, would lose a future war, and losing it would imply for Russia that it will be stripped out of its nuclear arsenal forever and will never be again the same. Sooner or later Iran will develop nuclear warheads and when this comes, other countries, out of fear, will do the same. The Global War seems to be imminent! But can we stop the Global War? History has shown us that human beings need wars to establish Peace, and although our consciousness has developed through experience we are still in the need of them as we keep making the same mistakes. If we take a look at the history of Europe, the wars driven by Napoleon were regarded as the Central Europe Wars. In a similar context, if we regard the world nowadays, as it was Europe in the XIX century, we would see that the Middle East becomes this central region again, and the history is repeating at a greater scale. With Napoleon, Central Europe was made of several states, most of them part of a confederation of German states. Similarly, nowadays the Middle East is made of several states, where most of them can be regarded as a confederation of Arab states; and therefore, it shows that the ultimate goal is to consolidate this region as a great nation, in a similar way as it happened in Europe, where Central Europe became Germany in 1871. But for that to come, war must come, unless one of the super powers, either the United States or Russia, loses control in the Middle East. Without war it may happen only if Syria and Iran become democratic countries and stop supporting Russia (likely happening only with US intervention), if it is so, the latter would have lost the Global War before even starting it, but this is well known for Russia; and therefore, if the events move in this direction, Russia will declare war to any ally that is shifting towards supporting the United States, with any excuse, such as claiming that the Westphalian principle has not been respected. Therefore no matter how we look at the problem the Global War seems to be imminent!
And what will happen once the Global War is over? Will the Middle East achieve order? The order will arrive in the Middle East as long as a Westphalian system is established similar to the European Union, possibly called the Arab Union, but not before achieving peace between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, or not before relegating them to a spiritual thought with no political power, or maybe, not before they merge into one single religion as a new philosophical concept, but how to achieve peace among the three religions or how to relegate them to a spiritual thought, or how to merge them into a single religion? To answer this, we must immerse ourselves in the history of East Asia, because the future is hidden in the past, and East Asia presents a history with a very different approach, basing its thinking on a different religion focused on enlightenment... "Buddhism."

To be continued...