Halliday attacks lack of understanding about Middle East

22 March 2005

Professor Fred Halliday launched a scathing attack on a massive deficit of Middle East 'analysis, expertise and understanding' in a speech today at Chatham House. Such a deficit is compounded by the deaf ear that Western foreign policy makers give to the advice of political scientists.

Professor Halliday said that there are significant areas of current interest in which the advice of Middle Eastern experts could have made a difference:

Key points:

• The disbanding of the Iraqi army was 'utterly foolish' and contributed significantly to the current absence of security in the country.

• The invasion and destruction of the Iraqi state would inevitably lead towards an increased regional role for Iran. He predicted that an Iranian solution will emerge in Iraq, with 'little room for the US and its allies'.

• He criticized the 'imported Balkanisation' of the Iraqi conflict. Arguing that experts who predict a Kurdish, Sunni or Shi'a succession have ignored the existence of an Iraqi national consciousness.

• For effective US mediation in the region a solution must be found to the Palestinian issue. Critical to achieving this is for the US to distance itself from Israel.

• The Western arming of the mujadahidin in Afghanistan was a 'major blunder' of which consequences we are still suffering from today.

Professor Halliday was drawing on the analysis in his two most recent books.

Notes for editors:

Tuesday 22 March 17.30-18.30
Farewell to the experts: Western foreign policy towards the Middle East and the decline of area expertise
Professor Fred Halliday, Professor of International Relations, LSE; author, incl. 100 Myths about the Middle East

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