Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Graduated from Political Geography, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
2
Visiting Professor, Department of Political Geography, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
3
Associate Professor, Department of Political Geography, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Extended Abstract
Introduction
The unparalleled Palestinian, Lebanese, and “Israeli” conflict has proven to be an extremely complex and difficult problem to intervene in by the international and regional players. Numerous solutions have been presented to try to solve this issue, of which all proved ineffective in the long run. The issue has been a struggle for the preservation of the Lebanese and Palestinian identity and survival. However, based on historical events and the evaluation of both the spatial attributes and the geopolitical positions of these regions, the international and regional parties, regardless of the difficulties they face, have taken on a sort of pattern that they tend to follow when they plan on intervening in this crisis. This article will introduce us to the main parties involved, their methods and the goals they plan on achieving even since the beginning of this issue up until the year 2011.
Methodology
With a descriptive-analytical method, this study intended to find the mechanisms or the patterns of intervention of the global and regional parties, and the process by which they form.
Findings
The findings of this study are discussed under the following themes:
The Model of Controversial Transformation of the Conflict due to the Intervention in the Issues of the Small Geographical Places : Geographically smaller place with multiple issues à Entry of powers into its regional issues à Dealing with overlapping issues whilst providing different options ( if à then ) à Engaging with other local and regional parties which will be able to maneuver more à change in the influence and authority of the powers, whether in speech, political visions or dialogue à Entry of new players that would, in turn, create new issues and new visions or dialogues à once again, a geographically smaller place with multiple issues.
Interventional Levels and Actors in the Geopolitical Crisis of the East Coast of the Mediterranean Sea: The magnitude and levels of intervention creates an impact on participants, regardless of the distance between the international force and the place of intervention, as opposed to the inevitable influence of neighboring regional forces.
The Conflict in the Region Has Re-Divided the World and the Players into an Eastern and Western Camp: Making it the first division in the last two decades in the East Coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the last one being the division during the Cold War.
The Subdivisions Imposed by the Equation Involving the Eastern Coast of the Mediterranean and the Identity of the Players.
Relationships Within this Situation Are Not One-way Relationships: Foreign players are forced to accept that they aren’t alone when it comes to interests in the region, and that there is no one great power that, alone, reigns over the region.In the meantime, and due to the clash of interest between the foreign powers, the role and effectivity of local and regional power increases and becomes more prominent and visible.
Analysis
The geopolitical crisis has a degree of sustainability and continuity which is not easily solvable. Therefore, due to the prolonged investment in the Palestinian issue and its pivotal importance to the local, regional, and trans-regional parties, the intervention method has shifted over time.In addition to that, due to the continuous nature of the conflict and the efforts of the players to resolve it, we are witnessing changes in the way some parties moving from one party to another, and the emergence of new players, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, a factor that entails the modification of rules of the game and the redistribution of power.
The basic part of the conflict theory is to resolve the conflict while sustaining the interests of the parties involved, seeking to find an answer to the reduction (or increase) of the contradiction between them (Vayrynen, 1991: 4). Given the specific conditions of the conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean (Lebanon and Palestine-“Israel”), and the apparent role of political parties on different levels, and conflicts of interest and their sharing arrangements, this conflict has become, due to those overlapping issues and its global functioning, the source of many other violent, regional, and global conflicts.
The purpose of this passage is to study, from a geopolitical starting point, the reason behind the involvement of foreign parties and the pattern of interference they claim in the conflicts of the East Coast.
Conclusion
The results showed that The Eastern Mediterranean coast crisis has the following impacts on global and regional politics:
1- Interventions of transregional and global parties in a given region have a specific pattern that results from a region’s spatial characteristics and geopolitical position.
2. The struggle of the world powers leads to a reduction of high-level capabilities and an increase in the influence of local and regional powers.
3- The role local powers have in influencing the global security system as a consequence of the crisis (political-economic-ideological) and, ultimately, on the international institutions.
4. The inability of global powers to control the crisis alone, with their sole interest in mind, leads to the possible change in the global viewpoint with the progression of the conflict at hand (leads to a change in the geopolitical-geostrategic paradigm).
Keywords