Education in the Middle East (original) (raw)

Business and Education in the Middle East

Abstract

Interestingly enough, an important publica tion of the National Council for the Social Studies, Approaches to an Understanding of World Affairs (edited by Howard R. Anderson, 1954), does not consider the Middle (or Near) East as such; it limits itself only to "The Islamic World" (chapter XIII, pp. 245-271). Yet, this is only an artificial classification, since, in recent decades, the Middle East has become one of the crucial areas of the world power struggle; fur thermore, Islam, the Mohammedan faith, is not the only common characteristic of the area. Pal estine, in the heart of this area, cannot be ex cluded from any considerations of comparative education in the region.1 We must remember that the Middle East stretches from Turkey to the Persian Gulf, and from the Caspian Sea to the Sudan. The area embraces Turkey, Syria, Palestine, and Jordan; Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Iran, and the states of the Persian Gulf. The Arab world here comprises eight independent states. Geo politically, the area is the crossroads of East and West, the cradle of modern civilizations, and the birthplace of three world religions. Its strategic importance is attested to, among other things, by the number of American military bases. Or by the fact that Saudi Arabia, the world's only re maining absolute monarchy, is the owner of the largest oil reserves of any nation, and a key link in the strategically important Middle East. In fact, none of the states in the region should be underestimated in their geopolitical importance to the United States and the free world. It is a region inseparable from the Mediterra nean, the sea which, for centuries, had been a vital thoroughfare of ideas and goods between Asia and Europe. Historically, as a highway, the Mediterranean and the Middle East have had to face persistent historic attempts to control all or parts of the area; the value of the Mediterranean as a sea and air route depends on the control of the Straits of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal. This

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