Eugene Rogan - The dynamic of changes in the Arab world

Eugene Rogan, Director of St. Antony’s College Middle East Centre, examines recent Muslim movements throughout the Arab world.

About Eugene Rogan "I am Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Oxford, and Director of the Middle East Centre at St Antony’s College.

My field is the modern history of the Arab world. I focus primarily on the 19th and 20th centuries, and my real interests have always been in the end of the Ottoman Empire, the emergence of modern States in the Middle East, and the way that has shaped the modern reality of the Arab world today."

Key Points

• Suppression of Muslim movements, especially in Egypt, breeded resentment and a view of regional governments as un-Islamic and unaligned with Muslim interests. • The successful Iranian revolution galvanised militant movements in the Arab world. Organisations like the Muslim Brotherhood were thereby emboldened to challenge autocratic regimes and further their political agenda. • The 2003 invasion of Iraq resulted in a Sunni-Shia divide. This division increased violence in the region and allowed for hypercharged movements like ISIS to gain influence.

A rising challenge

For the Arab world, the experience of total defeat in 1967 was a seismic moment. It forced a rethink of politics across the board. As always, with plate tectonics, such movements take time.

Nevertheless, one could argue that between 1967 and 1979, the politics of Arab nationalism had been tremendously undermined by the failure of the Arab States to realise numerous goals. These included the liberation of Palestine, the development of modern institutions and industry and the establishment of a dignified position for the Arab world among world powers.

The reality of the Arab world in the 1970s stood in stark contrast to these ambitions. The region was fragmented, divided and weak. There were States coming under the control of autocrats who would suppress their citizens. Only a handful of movements had the courage of conviction needed. Indeed, only organisations inspired by the Islamic discourse were regularly challenging these autocratic States.