greater Middle East

{{Short description|Loose political term introduced in the 2000s}}

{{Use Oxford spelling|date=July 2020}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}

{{Use British English|date=October 2024}}

{{Infobox continent

| title = Greater Middle East

| image = Greater Middle East (orthographic projection).svg

| caption = Variations on definitions of the Middle East and North Africa region

{{legend|#346733|Traditional definition of the Middle East{{Cite web|title=Middle East {{!}} History, Map, Countries, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Middle-East|access-date=31 May 2021|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|archive-date=7 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220907171126/https://www.britannica.com/place/Middle-East|url-status=live}}}}

{{legend|#008000|Greater Middle East (2004 U.S. Government paper)}}

{{legend|#73ED73|Areas pundits sometimes associated with Middle East c. 2004}}

| countries = {{Collapsible list

| titlestyle = text-align:left;font-weight:normal;

| title = UN members (36) and UN observer (1)

| Core area

| Middle East

• {{flag|Bahrain}}
• {{flag|Cyprus}}
• {{flag|Egypt}}
• {{flag|Iran}}
• {{flag|Iraq}}
• {{flag|Israel}}
• {{flag|Jordan}}
• {{flag|Kuwait}}
• {{flag|Lebanon}}
• {{flag|Oman}}
• {{flag|Palestine}}
• {{flag|Qatar}}
• {{flag|Saudi Arabia}}
• {{flag|Syria}}
• {{flag|Turkey}}
• {{flag|United Arab Emirates}}
• {{flag|Yemen}}

| Marginal area

| North Africa

• {{flag|Algeria}}
• {{flag|Libya}}
• {{flag|Morocco}}
• {{flag|Sudan}}
• {{flag|Tunisia}}

| East Africa

• {{flag|Comoros}}
• {{flag|Djibouti}}
• {{flag|Somalia}}

| South Asia

• {{flag|Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan|name=Afghanistan}}
• {{flag|Pakistan}}

| West Africa

• {{flag|Mauritania}}

| Peripheral area

| Caucasus

• {{flag|Armenia}}
• {{flag|Azerbaijan}}
• {{flag|Georgia}}

| Central Asia

• {{flag|Kazakhstan}}
• {{flag|Kyrgyzstan}}
• {{flag|Tajikistan}}
• {{flag|Turkmenistan}}
• {{flag|Uzbekistan}}

}}

{{Collapsible list

| titlestyle = background:transparent;text-align:left;font-weight:normal;

| title = States with limited recognition (5)

| Core area

| Middle East

• {{flag|Northern Cyprus}}

| Marginal area

| East Africa

• {{flag|Somaliland}}

| North Africa

• {{flag|Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic}}

| Peripheral area

| Caucasus

• {{flag|Abkhazia}}
• {{flag|South Ossetia}}

}}

| dependencies = {{Collapsible list

| titlestyle = background:transparent;text-align:left;font-weight:normal;

| title = External (1)

| Core area

| Middle East

• {{flag|Akrotiri and Dhekelia}} (United Kingdom)

}}

{{Collapsible list

| titlestyle = background:transparent;text-align:left;font-weight:normal;

| title = Internal (6)

| Core area

| Middle East

• {{flag|Kurdistan}} (Iraq)
• {{flag|Rojava}} (Syria)

| Peripheral area

| Caucasus

• {{flag|Adjara}} (Georgia)
• {{flag|Nakhchivan}} (Azerbaijan)

| Central Asia

• Gorno-Badakhshan (Tajikistan)
• {{flag|Karakalpakstan}} (Uzbekistan)

}}

{{Collapsible list

| titlestyle = background:transparent;text-align:left;font-weight:normal;

| title = Occupied (5)

| Core area

| Middle East

• {{flagdeco|Palestine}} East Jerusalem
• {{flag|Gaza Strip}}
• {{flagdeco|Syria}} Golan Heights
• {{flag|West Bank}}

| Marginal area

| North Africa

• {{flag|Western Sahara}}

}}

{{Collapsible list

| titlestyle = background:transparent;text-align:left;font-weight:normal;

| title = UN buffers (2)

| Core area

| Middle East

• {{flagdeco|United Nations}} UNBZC
• {{flagdeco|United Nations}} UNDOF Zone

}}

| cities = {{Collapsible list

| titlestyle = background:transparent;text-align:left;font-weight:normal;

| title = 8 largest cities in the Greater Middle East (2022){{Cite web|url=https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities|title=World City Populations 2022|website=worldpopulationreview.com|access-date=8 July 2022|archive-date=20 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220194018/http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/|url-status=live}}

|

1. {{flagicon|Egypt}} Cairo
2. {{flagicon|Turkey}} Istanbul
3. {{flagicon|Iran}} Tehran
4. {{flagicon|Saudi Arabia}} Riyadh
5. {{flagicon|Iraq}} Baghdad
6. {{flagicon|Sudan}} Khartoum
7. {{flagicon|Egypt}} Alexandria
8. {{flagicon|Turkey}} Ankara

}}

}}

The Greater Middle East is a geopolitical term introduced in March 2004 in a paper published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as part of the United States' preparatory work for the Group of Eight summit of June 2004. The paper presented a proposal for sweeping change in the way the West deals with the Middle East and North Africa.Perthes, V., 2004, [http://www.mepc.org/journal_vol11/0409_perthes.asp America's "Greater Middle East" and Europe: Key Issues for Dialogue] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081115112943/http://www.mepc.org//journal_vol11/0409_perthes.asp|date=15 November 2008}}, Middle East Policy, Volume XI, No.3, Pages 85–97.Ottaway, Marina & Carothers, Thomas (29 March 2004), [http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1480 The Greater Middle East Initiative: Off to a False Start] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180708030632/http://carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1480|date=8 July 2018}}, Policy Brief, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 29, Pages 1–7 It also denotes a vaguely defined region encompassing the Arab world, along with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, and sometimes the Caucasus and Central Asia.{{cite web|title=The Greater Middle East 2025 - Foreign Policy Research Institute|url=https://www.fpri.org/article/1999/12/the-greater-middle-east-2025/|access-date=18 April 2024|website=www.fpri.org|language=en-US}}{{cite web|title=The Greater Middle East Initiative|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2004/5/20/the-greater-middle-east-initiative|access-date=31 May 2021|website=Al Jazeera|language=en|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407060811/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2004/5/20/the-greater-middle-east-initiative|url-status=live}}{{cite journal|last=Stewart|first=Dona J.|date=2005|title=The Greater Middle East and Reform in the Bush Administration's Ideological Imagination|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30034245|journal=Geographical Review|volume=95|issue=3|pages=400–424|doi=10.1111/j.1931-0846.2005.tb00373.x |jstor=30034245 |bibcode=2005GeoRv..95..400S |issn=0016-7428|url-access=subscription}}

Adam Garfinkle of the Foreign Policy Research Institute defined the Greater Middle East as the MENA region together with the Caucasus and Central Asia.{{cite web|title=The Greater Middle East 2025|first=Adam|last=Garfinkle|work=Foreign Policy Research Institute|date=1 December 1999|url=https://www.fpri.org/article/1999/12/the-greater-middle-east-2025/|access-date=22 January 2021|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407060811/https://www.fpri.org/article/1999/12/the-greater-middle-east-2025/|url-status=live}}

The future of the Greater Middle East has sometimes been referred to as the "new Middle East", first so by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who presented the second-term Bush administration's vision for the region's future in June 2006 in Dubai. Rice said it would be achieved through "constructive chaos", a phrase she repeated a few weeks later during a joint press conference with Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert when the 2006 Lebanon War had broken out; the meaning of this phrase and the Bush administration's vision have been much debated since.{{cite web|access-date=30 August 2019|title=Silence, Please! A New Middle East Is in the Making|url=http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/12/silence-please-a-new-middle-east-is-in-the-making|website=Inter Press Service|first=Baher|last=Kamal|date=14 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190830090424/http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/12/silence-please-a-new-middle-east-is-in-the-making/|archive-date=30 August 2019|url-status=live}}{{cite journal|last1=Yadgar|first1=Yaacov|title=A Myth of Peace: 'The Vision of the New Middle East' and Its Transformations in the Israeli Political and Public Spheres|journal=Journal of Peace Research|date=July 2016|volume=43|issue=3|pages=297–312|doi=10.1177/0022343306063933|s2cid=144802783}}{{cite news|url=https://gulfnews.com/world/americas/the-new-middle-east-and-its-constructive-chaos-1.1218872|title=The 'New Middle East' and its 'constructive chaos'|author=Jumana Al Tamimi|work=Gulf News|date=10 August 2013|access-date=20 January 2021|archive-date=13 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213215345/https://gulfnews.com/world/americas/the-new-middle-east-and-its-constructive-chaos-1.1218872|url-status=live}} The efforts to achieve this new Middle East are sometimes called "The Great Middle East Project".{{cite web|url=http://www.sakarya.edu.tr/en/?nid=237|title="Great Middle East Project" Conference by Prof. Dr. Mahir Kaynak and Ast.Prof. Dr. Emin Gürses in SAU|access-date=3 October 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180122071832/http://www.sakarya.edu.tr/en/?nid=237|archive-date=22 January 2018|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.emep.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=155:-the-greater-middle-east-project-the-new-name-for-occupation-and-re-division&catid=47:articles&Itemid=98|title=Turkish Emek Political Parties|access-date=3 October 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502230715/http://www.emep.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=155:-the-greater-middle-east-project-the-new-name-for-occupation-and-re-division&catid=47:articles&Itemid=98|archive-date=2 May 2014|url-status=live}}

Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski stated that a "political awakening" is taking place in this region which may be an indicator of the multipolar world that is now developing. He alluded to the Greater Middle East as the "Global Balkans", and as a control lever on an area he refers to as Eurasia.Zbigniew Brzezinski, "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geo-strategic Imperatives" Cited in (Nazemroaya, 2006).{{page needed|date=September 2010}} According to Andrew Bacevich's 2016 book America's War for the Greater Middle East, this region is the theater for a series of conflicts dating back to 1980, which heralded the start of the Iran–Iraq War.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}