The Role of the West in Creating Identity and Ethnic Crises in the Middle East

Identity and identification are among the important factors which influence the political geography of a country, region or the international system. Identity is formed on the basis of convergence among humans and the geographical, cultural, social and political attitudes in order to establish an independent nation or state. Although Islamic world is composed of different ethnic, national and religious identities in regions spread out across the globe, the strategy of the world in establishing borders in the Islamic world has not developed on the basis of historical and nationalistic conformity and homogeneity of human and natural environment which can be regarded as a means for challenging the authority of governments in the Islamic world. By adopting a critical attitude and an analytical-descriptive approach and examining the strategy of the West in supporting special identities in the heart if the Islamic world (the Middle East), this study aims to highlight the interests of the western countries and their objectives in changing the political geography of the religion. The results of this study indicate that in order to achieve their strategic interests in the Middle East, the western countries purposefully interfere in the establishment of the political borders and overemphasize particular ethnic and religious identities, in order to impede the development of the existing ethnic groups, and put a lot of pressure on the countries of the region to make them comply with their policies.