Middle East in Dire Need of Serious Reforms

Seyed Ghasem Zakeri

Middle East Analyst

During past decades, the Middle East has been plagued with various kinds of crises and problems. Today, however, the situation in the region is much worse than any time before, because under conditions that hard and chronic problems of the past have remained unresolved, the region is grappling with newer and, of course, more difficult crises and dilemmas. At present, insecurity and violence have engulfed vast parts of the Middle East, so that, various forms of violence, which in most cases target ordinary people, have turned into an ordinary phenomenon in this region. While some previously powerful states and armies have been destroyed or undermined in this region, a few remaining powers and stable regional countries have been also directly or indirectly involved in regional conflicts and hostilities. In addition, big global powers like the United States, Russia and Europe have been also drawn into various conflicts in the Middle East and Africa and their intervention has further escalated the situation.

Although the situation in the region is sorrowful and disappointing enough as it stands, worse than that is predictions by most experts and analysts who forecast even worse days for the Middle East. Under conditions that accumulation of crises and problems that are remnants of the past, has led to collapse and disintegration of previously powerful and stable governments including those in Libya, Syria and Iraq, there are now fears that further intensification of regional problems will cause them to spill over into more stable parts of the region. This is true because in reality, the political world is very similar to the law of communicating vessels in physics, and in a similar way, all problems in international politics are somehow related to one another. Evidence to the point in this regard is the insecurity and instability that is threatening Egypt these days and it is not even unlikely that security index in Turkey and Saudi Arabia could fall to lower than its current state. There is no doubt that Iran is surrounded by nidi of insecurity and this is not in favor of security, development and progress of our country. Therefore, we have no other choice, but to help resolution of the existing problems and prevent further crises in the region in order to reduce the untoward effect of escalating insecurity on our own national interests and security.

In view of the root causes of regional problems, the final solution to these problems is reforms and firmly believing in real and endogenous reforms that would be able to reduce the suffering and problems of the region and help various Middle Eastern peoples and societies. Otherwise, the Middle East region will be in for a much worse future outlook in the face of new problems that would inevitably face it.

Undoubtedly, existence of inefficient and unpopular governments has been the most important cause of the existing problems in the Middle East. Of course, in addition to this key element, there are other elements that must be taken into account on the list of present and future problems of the Middle East. Some of these critical elements include: fundamentalism; spread and prolongation of civil wars; sectarianism as well as religious wars; the growing trend of terrorism and recourse to violence for the settlement of disputes and ever-increasing number of violent groups; continued occupation of Palestine; foreign intervention in regional issues, which is mostly focused on military hardware approaches; reduced power of central governments; emergence of such environmental crises as water shortage; the feeling of being marginalized by the majority of people in the region; growing demand for change; emergence of new identities in the region; intensification of economic underdevelopment; and expectations for further escalation of economic crisis in the region due to downturn in global prices of crude oil in the long run.

Since the region is at the outset of a change-seeking movement, serious and fundamental reforms can serve as a major inhibitory factor in the face of the rising tide of chaos and future instability. Otherwise, the Middle East will see more crises and violence in the future and the escalation of the crisis will have its undesirable effects, because no country in the region would be immune to such problems. In other words, if leaders in crisis-hit counties of the Middle East had realized the importance of reforms, paid attention to their people’s demands, and had given in to reforms in due time, the situation in their countries would have been quite different right now. Of course, it is evident that real and endogenous reforms have their own specific meaning and norms, which do not necessarily conform to democratization norms introduced by the Western countries or trickery and deception of some politicking figures in the Middle East, who only pay lip service to this cause and have no intention to carry out genuine reforms. Outsourcing and transferring as much power as possible to people, following a transparent model of governance, the focus by governments on economy and distancing from inflexible ideologies, and also reducing the feeling of being marginalized among people are the most important elements of true reforms. On the other hand, forming a coalition made up of popular and reformist governments in the Middle East may pave the way for common regional efforts aimed at preventing further crisis in the region.

Iran review