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Middle East Since 1945

Introduction

The international system which emerged in the post world war II period was characterised by division of the world into two camps possessing faith in opposite political and economic programmes ideologies and systems of the government.

One camp was led by United States and chiefly consisted of countries, located in institutions and stood for promotion of individual human rights and equality before law. They believe in achieving this through private enterprise. This set of countries came to be known as ‘Western Block'. As most of the countries of this block were industrial nations, it was also designated as countries of the ‘First World.'

The second camp was headed by the Soviet Union and chiefly consisted of countries of Eastern Europe which possessed authoritarian governments. In these countries the collective proletariat and its party claimed to rule in the interests of the masses. They believe in expediting economic and social development through party and bureaucratic central planning. By and large, the countries of this block held faith in the idea of overthrowing bourgeois regimes. This block was also designated at the ‘Social or the Anti-capitalist' camp.

In addition to these two blocks, a new group of states made their appearance in the 1950s, which did not belong to either of the above two blocks and began to be designated as the ‘Third World'. Most of the countries of this group were either colonies of different power blocks and after attainment of independence decided to keep of the power blocks that had appeared in the post World War II period. These countries were mainly located in the Southern Hemisphere – Asia, Africa etc. Later on, some of the countries belonging to the Soviet Orbit such as Albania, Yugoslavia, Romania and Cuba also came to be included in the category of Third World countries. Similarly, some of those non-European states which were never under colonial rule...