The main trends in the development of the countries of the Near and Middle East after the Second World War. USSR and countries of Eastern Europe after World War II

World War II brought about major political changes throughout the world, including in the Far East and Southeast Asia. While the war was going on, the peoples of the colonial countries and the ruling circles of the imperialist powers, which were part of the anti-fascist coalition, fought against a common enemy, and this to a certain extent smoothed out the sharpness of the contradictions between them. As victory approached, and especially after it, the intransigence of their fundamental interests became more and more acute, becoming an important political factor that largely determined the development of events in this part of the world.

A special position in relation to the countries of the "colonial periphery" was taken by the United States, which in words stood for their political liberation, but in reality sought to oust, and if possible, even replace their European competitors and secure a predominant position in these countries. American propaganda strongly emphasized that, unlike Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands, the United States of America had always been an "anti-colonial" country (944). However, in the Philippines, US military and civilian officials acted in the same way. as well as the colonial authorities of other imperialist powers in their dominions. US officials in every possible way limited democratic organizations, disarmed the detachments of patriots who took an active part in the liberation of the Philippines, etc. At the same time, they essentially did nothing to solve the agrarian problem, which was the most acute for the vast majority of the population of the Philippines - peasantry (945).

In choosing areas of penetration and obtaining preferential rights, American political and military circles proceeded from the interests of US monopoly capital for the post-war period. At the same time, strategic interests were also taken into account: military bases in the annexed mandated territories of Japan allowed the United States to turn the Pacific Ocean into an "American lake". Supporters of a more cautious policy proposed not to resort to direct annexation, but to achieve control over these territories, using the institution of trusteeship as a replacement for the "classical" form of colonialism with a new one, which would first allow eliminating the predominant positions of the European metropolises in their possessions, and then, using economic and financial levers, gain access to new sources of raw materials and markets.

Naturally, the desire of the United States to oust the European states from their possessions in the Far East and Southeast Asia was extremely disapprovingly received in the capitals of the "old" colonial powers. Inter-imperialist contradictions became a serious factor that determined the political climate in Southeast Asia and the Far East after the end of World War II.

There were also certain disagreements between the "old" colonial powers, but in the specific situation that had developed in this area by the end of 1945, they were relegated to the background. By the time Japan surrendered, neither France nor the Netherlands had armed forces that would have allowed them to independently fight the national liberation movement. Their units were too small and logistically completely dependent on the British army. In view of this, France and the Netherlands were forced to rely on the help of Great Britain.

For their part, the British authorities sought to support these colonial powers in the struggle against the national liberation revolutions in Vietnam and Indonesia, fearing their spread to the British colonies.

The joint actions of London, Paris and Amsterdam against the peoples demanding independence were another important feature of the political situation in the Far East and Southeast Asia. The class solidarity of the imperialists in the face of the impending general crisis of the colonial system became a more significant factor than the differences within their camp.

The solution of the Far Eastern issues was also complicated by the unwillingness of certain circles in the United States and Great Britain to cooperate with the USSR, although the experience of the war showed that an agreement on problems of such magnitude could be reached only with the participation of the Soviet Union. Realistically thinking Americans realized that attempts to keep the USSR out of the discussion of Far Eastern issues were doomed to failure. But further steps taken by the White House showed that the policy of isolating the Soviet Union prevailed there.

The countries of Southeast Asia (Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore) were occupied by Japan during World War II. After the defeat of Japan, a national liberation movement unfolded in the region. In August 1945, revolutions won in Vietnam and Indonesia. On September 2, 1945, Vietnam was proclaimed a democratic republic, Ho Chi Minh became the head of the Provisional Government and the permanent leader of the country for the next 24 years. On August 17, 1945, the independence of the Republic of Indonesia was proclaimed, the first president of which was Sukarno (since 1968 - Suharto). However, the edge-nor-mother country began hostilities against these states.

In September 1945, French troops captured the central and southern parts of Vietnam. However, thanks to the help of the USSR, the Vietnamese army managed in the spring of 1945 to defeat the French expeditionary force in the Dyenb Yen Phu area. In July 1954, the Geneva Accords were signed between France and Vietnam, according to which North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam - DRV) became independent. French troops were stationed south of the 17th parallel in South Vietnam. In 1956, elections to the national assembly were held in South Vietnam and a constitution was adopted. USA, Great Britain, France recognized this new republic and provided it with significant economic and military assistance. However, the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, created in 1960, led by the Communists, relying on the support of the DRV, launched active military operations against the Saigon regime, which marked the beginning of the civil war in Vietnam.

The United States, seeking to keep South Vietnam under its control and prevent the establishment of a communist regime there, gradually became involved in this war, and from 1964 began active military operations against the DRV. The American-Vietnamese war is the bloodiest among the local wars of the 20th century. - lasted almost 10 years and ended with the victory of the DRV. In January 1973, the United States signed the Paris Agreement to end the war and restore peace in Vietnam. On July 2, 1976, Vietnam was united and the creation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) was proclaimed, with Hanoi as its capital.

The failure to build socialism forced the ruling Communist Party in 1986 to launch economic reforms similar to China's: abbreviated state planning; given freedom to enterprises; improved conditions for the operation of small private enterprises; concessions were granted to foreign capital; an article on private property was introduced into the constitution. The consequence of this was economic growth - Vietnam came out on the 3rd place in the world in the export of rice, the cessation of inflation, an increase in foreign investment, mainly from private entrepreneurs from East and Southeast Asia. The average increase in GNP in the country is 8-9% per year. The foreign policy of the SRV has also changed. In the late 1980s, she withdrew her troops from Cambodia and Laos, which had previously been in her sphere of influence, normalized relations with China, which in 1979 began hostilities against Vietnam, and in 1995 restored diplomatic relations with the United States .

In Indonesia, until 1949, there was a war with the mother country - the Netherlands. After the period of the "liberal economy" of 1950-1957, which was characterized by the instability of economic life, Sukarno introduced martial law. An attempt by the Communists to seize power in 1965 was crushed by the military, led by General Suharto, who became president in 1968, establishing a "new order" that relied on the prevailing influence of the army in all spheres of life. Since that period, the country has developed mainly due to the export of oil. In the 70-80s, industry and the agricultural sector were denationalized. Foreign and domestic policy began to focus on Western countries - foreign capital was provided with favorable conditions for investment. The standard of living remained relatively low. After the 1987 elections, the Suharto regime became even stronger and in the 21st century. The country entered into a period of relative economic recovery and political stability.

One of the most tragic periods of development took place after the war in Cambodia. After gaining independence in 1954, the monarchy was restored there, headed by Prince Sihanuk. In 1970, a coup d'état took place in the country and a government led by General Lon Nol came to power. Cambodia was proclaimed a Khmer Republic, and the monarchy was abolished. But in 1975, the nationalist ultra-livy Khmer Rouge regime, headed by Pol Pot, came to power. Choosing Mao Zedong China as a model, Pol Pot put forward the idea of ​​Khmer socialism: the elimination of cities, trade, money, families, and the creation of agricultural communes. Almost all the intelligentsia and the military were destroyed. All residents of Phnom Penh (the capital of Cambodia) were hung in the countryside for 72 hours, forced marriages were introduced. 3 million out of 8 million people died. In 1978, Vietnam, with the support of the USSR, seized Cambodia, expelled the half-dozens from the country, and in January 1979, the People's Republic of Kampuchea was proclaimed. After 10 years, the Vietnamese troops were withdrawn. Cambodia gradually began to return to peaceful life.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the pro-Vietnamese regime was in power in the country. He was opposed by supporters of Prince Sihanouk, who ruled the country until 1970, and the Khmer Rouge, who controlled a vast region on the border with Thailand. Only at the end of the 1980s did a political dialogue begin with the aim of achieving unity in the state. U1989, Vietnam withdrew its troops, in 1993 elections were held, which were won by supporters of Prince Sihanouk, who again led the state. The monarchy was restored in Cambodia. But peace initiatives were thwarted in 1997 when the government coalition collapsed and supporters of former Prime Minister Hun Sen started a civil war.

South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan are figuratively referred to as "Asian tigers" due to their rapid "jump" from underdevelopment to prosperity over the past 25 years. There are several reasons for this success:

o the combination of the centuries-old traditions of Confucianism (respect for authority and power, high work culture, sacrifice for the common good, the ability to be content with little, lack of rights and freedoms of the Western European model, etc.) with a market economy;

o military and financial support from the US, South Korea and Taiwan, strong ties between Hong Kong and Singapore with the UK;

o active state intervention in the economy - encouraging entrepreneurs to take the initiative, conquer international markets; state support for export-oriented sectors of the economy.

In South Korea (Republic of Korea), which arose in 1948, annual economic growth over the past 50 years has been at the level of 4.5-13%, now the income per person is more than 11 thousand dollars per year. The economic prosperity of the country began with the development of the textile industry and the export of textiles, the prices for which were low on the world market due to the low cost of labor. The authoritarian regime of the military reigned in the country (1948-1960 - Lee Syngman, 1960-1979 pp. - Park Chung Hee). Democratic reforms began in 1987, when the first popular elections were held and the country's democratic constitution was put into effect. In the 80s, Korea became the world leader in the production of household appliances, ships, cars, shoes.

The Republic of China (Taiwan) was established in 1949 by Chiang Kai-shek, who emigrated to the island from mainland China after losing the civil war. As in Korea, economic growth here was facilitated by the authoritarian regime: 1949-1975 - Chiang Kai-shek, 1975-1986 - Chiao Chinguo, son of Chiang Kai-shek. Democratic reforms were established only after the death of the latter. The ruling regime has created conditions for the development of industries such as textile, clothing and footwear, toys; later, mechanical engineering and science-intensive industries developed. Today, Taiwan has the world's largest foreign exchange reserve in US dollars.

In Singapore, which became an independent state in 1965, more than a third of the population is employed in the financial and service sectors. The city of Singapore is one of the financial centers of the world and a great port. The leader of the authoritarian regime in the country from 1959 to 1990 was Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. The main export items are electronics and computer equipment, petrochemicals, and light industry.

In Hong Kong (Syangan), passed under the jurisdiction of China from the UK on July 1, 1997, the highest level of income per person among the "tigers" is 24.5 thousand dollars per year. The city exports up to 90% of its products (clothes, toys, watches). 28.5% of the population is employed in production, the same number in trade, restaurant and hotel business.

The rapid economic development of the resource-rich countries in the region is due to the predominantly Chinese bourgeoisie, which has shown extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit here, creating large transnational corporations very quickly. In the federation of Malaysia, the Malay bourgeoisie proper controls only 30% of the economy, the Chinese - 60%. Rubber, tin, oil, wood are exported, and recently - electrical products, computers. Annual GDP growth - 8-9%.

The Kingdom of Thailand, which for a long time was an underdeveloped, politically unstable state (for 60 years, 17 coup d'état), in the 70-80s turned into the world's largest exporter of rice. In the 1980s, thanks to foreign investment and technology, electronics, chemical products and car assembly industries became export goods.

Young industrial countries are striving for regional unification. In 1967, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines formed the ASEAN economic association. Economic integration, duty-free trade within the framework of the Association made it possible to raise the level of production and turn this region into one of the centers of the world economy.

The development of Asian countries in the second half of the XX century. characterized by a variety of models and ideological paradigms. A significant part of the Asian states not only managed to embark on the path of sustainable development, but also successfully compete with the leading European states and the United States, which gives grounds to many specialists to introduce the concept of the "Pacific Age" into circulation. Indeed, in many respects, it is the Asia-Pacific Region (APR) that is increasingly becoming the center of world trade and the production of goods and technologies.

Following the example of Japan, four "Asian tigers" (Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea) during the 70-90s pp. have turned into dynamic and developed societies, whose well-being is based on export-oriented rapidly developing economies.

One of the phenomena of the development of Asian countries in the late XX - early XXI centuries. was the Chinese "economic miracle". The average annual rate of development of the country from 1979 to 2003 was 9.4%. Since the reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, China has managed to quadruple its output by 2000. A significant resource for modernization was the accession of the former colonies of Hong Kong and Macau, respectively, in 1997 and 1999 pp. Implementing the principle of "one country - two systems" (that is, the parallel existence of the so-called capitalist and socialist systems within one state entity), these two special administrative regions continue to remain economically attractive for billions of dollars of investment, while maintaining and developing significant economies. co-financial potential. At the same time, elections to the local legislature were held in Hong Kong under considerable pressure from the center, as a result of which pro-Beijing forces received a majority. Temporary progress in resolving the problem of the status of Tibet, which began with the statement in 2004 by the Dalai Lama on the recognition of this region as part of China and dialogue with Beijing, was overshadowed by the speeches of the local population, a significant part of which was dissatisfied with the policy of cultural and ethnic assimilation by the center. Some progress has been achieved in the rapprochement between mainland China and Taiwan. In 2005, the leaders of the leading Taiwanese parties (with the exception of the then ruling Democratic Progressive Party), including the chairman of the Kuomintang, visited the PRC. However, a significant level of military confrontation and further political and military pressure from Beijing retain opportunities for an explosion of conflict.

Although the Near and Middle East was not the main theater of war, World War II had a major impact on the region, accelerating the economic and political changes that had begun there in the preceding decades. Military operations in North Africa, the supply of Soviet allies under the Lend-Lease system through Iran, and the widespread mobilization of economic resources stimulated the development of local agriculture, industry and the sphere. The Second World War brought an end to European dominance in the Arab world and at the same time consolidated the political boundaries established after the First World War. Syria and Lebanon gained independence from France between 1941 and 1946. Egypt and Iraq achieved this status in the 1930s, but the war contributed to the growth of those forces that, with military coups in Egypt in 1952 and Iraq in 1958, ended their privileged position. UK in these countries. Sudan gained independence in 1956. In the same year, British guardianship over Jordan was abolished. Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria achieved independence from France between 1956 and 1962. Kuwait became independent in 1961, South Yemen in 1967, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in 1971. The most important exception in this series was Palestine, which became the scene of acute conflict between the State of Israel, established in 1948, by the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab governments of the region. The second major change in the Near and Middle East was the transformation of this region into a major oil producer. Iran and Iraq were producing oil before World War II, and there were large oil concessions in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries. However, oil has not yet become the main energy carrier for industrialized countries, the demand for it was met mainly by producers from the Western Hemisphere, primarily the United States and Venezuela. The post-war recovery and development of the European and Japanese economies and the growth of fuel consumption in the United States stimulated the rapid development of oil production and the necessary export infrastructure in the Middle East. After the war, European and other consumers of oil in the Eastern Hemisphere began to receive it mainly from the Near and Middle East. The third important post-war change in the Near and Middle East was the decline of the influence of France and Great Britain and the strengthening of the position of the United States. An important factor was also the rivalry between the US and the USSR, which lasted until the collapse of the USSR in 1991. After the Second World War, the most acute problems in the Middle East remained the Palestinian issue and the protracted conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. An equally important factor was the revolution of 1979 in Iran, led by the Shiite clergy, and the ensuing eight-year war in the Persian Gulf between Iran and Iraq.

Iran and the Truman Doctrine. The first post-war political crisis erupted in Iran. Although Iran remained a formally independent country during the colonial era, the greatest influence since the end of the 19th century. Great Britain used here, which controlled the Iranian oil industry. Another major external force was tsarist Russia, and from 1917 to 1991, the USSR. The Soviet-Western alliance against the fascist powers after 1941 largely relied on a reliable supply route for the USSR through Iran. Reza Shah's connections with Germany forced Great Britain to occupy southern Iran, where the main oil fields were located, and the USSR entered northern Iran. The post-war crisis engulfed Iran's northern province of Azerbaijan, which bordered on the USSR. One reason was the long-standing demand by the Azerbaijanis for autonomy from the Persian-dominated central government in Tehran. In 1945, the creation of an autonomous government of Azerbaijan was proclaimed. Another component of the crisis was the struggle between Great Britain, the USSR and the United States for control of Iranian oil. The third reason was the desire of the USSR to prevent the emergence of an unfriendly regime in post-war Iran and, accordingly, the US concern to reduce Soviet influence to a minimum. As a result of negotiations in April 1946, an agreement was reached on the withdrawal of Soviet troops. In the fall of 1946, Iran sent troops into Iranian Azerbaijan and annulled an earlier agreement under which it promised to grant the USSR an oil concession in northern Iran. In Turkey, the main post-war problems were that the USSR had claims to the Turkish border provinces, which at one time were controlled by Tsarist Russia. The USSR also demanded that Soviet ships be granted the right of free passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. From the perspective of the US government, the confrontation in Iran and Turkey, as well as in Greece, where the Greek communists fought against the British-backed conservative monarchy, dictated the formation of a political and military alliance to contain the USSR and provide industrialized capitalist countries with access to cheap oil reserves in the Persian region. bay. By April 1947, with the adoption of the Truman Doctrine, the United States declared the Near and Middle East a sphere of vital interest in the unfolding Cold War.

Arab-Israeli war 1947-1949. Immediately after World War II, the struggle for Palestine intensified. Initially, both the US and the USSR supported the UN plan for the partition of Palestine. The new state of Israel was recognized within days of its creation on May 15, 1948. As a result of the mass emigration of Jews before the Second World War to Palestine, which was then under British rule, the proportion of the Arab population was reduced from nine-tenths to two-thirds by 1939. The war and Nazi Germany's policy of exterminating Jews in Europe led to a critical refugee situation in 1945. Most countries, including the United States, were not eager to accept displaced European Jews who managed to survive the war. The Jewish National Movement in Palestine used political and military methods to attract Holocaust survivors to the country. In 1947, Zionist attacks on British targets became more frequent, Great Britain announced its intention to withdraw from Palestine and referred the issue to the UN for consideration. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly recommended that Palestine be divided into two states - Arab and Jewish, and that international control be established over Jerusalem. Although this did not quite meet the expectations of the Zionist leadership led by David Ben-Gurion, they accepted the UN plan. The Palestinian Arabs and the Arab states rejected the partition of Palestine. Over the next few months, the confrontation between the Zionists and the Palestinian Arabs escalated, and Britain announced that it would completely withdraw from Palestine by May 14, 1948. Earlier that year, thousands of Arabs fled their homes, fearing that they would become victims of a larger conflict that began to emerge after the proclamation of the State of Israel and the entry into Palestine of troops from neighboring Jordan, Egypt and Syria. The unity of the Palestinian Arabs was undermined after their defeat in the anti-British uprising of 1936-1939 and as a result of the confrontation that preceded the creation of Israel. The armed forces of Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Transjordan attacked Israel. However, Israel had a more experienced command, its army received weapons from Czechoslovakia in a timely manner. All this, coupled with the diplomatic support of the United States and the USSR, allowed the Israelis to defeat the Arab troops. When Israel signed an armistice agreement with the Arab states in 1949, it already controlled 75% of the former Palestine. Egypt retained control of the coastal strip around Gaza. Transjordan captured and soon annexed the West Bank of the Jordan River. By the time the Arab-Israeli war of 1948-1949 was over, up to 700,000 Palestinian Arabs had become refugees. 160,000 Palestinian Arabs remained in Israel, whose Jewish population numbered 650,000. Only a small number of refugees were allowed to return to Israel, whose authorities cited an ongoing state of war with neighboring Arab countries. Israel encouraged the mass immigration of Jews from Arab countries, primarily Iraq and Yemen, and then Morocco. By 1951 its population had doubled. By the early 1950s, Israel had obtained vital aid from Germany and the United States. In the Cold War, Israel sided with the United States. In May 1950, the United States, France, and Great Britain issued a declaration warning against the use of force to change Israel's borders and promised their assistance in maintaining Israel's military parity with neighboring Arab states.

Iranian oil crisis. A new crisis erupted in Iran in April 1951, when Parliament nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. At first, the Iranian government demanded an increase in the financial contributions of the company in its favor, but soon a unanimous decision was made to nationalize it, in which Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh, leader of the National Front, played a major role. The Iranian oil crisis reflected the dissatisfaction of local patriotic forces with foreign control over major political and economic structures. The United States supported the British boycott of Iranian oil exports. As a result, Mossadegh was overthrown in August 1953, and Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi came to power. Behind the struggle over control of a vital resource was another rivalry - between British and American companies and their governments. The post-crisis order of management of the Iranian oil industry provided for the preservation of the facade of nationalization, leaving the industry in the ownership of the National Iranian Oil Company. However, a consortium of companies secured the exclusive right to manage the oil industry and own oil produced in Iran until 1994. In this consortium, an Anglo-Iranian company owned 40% of the shares, five giant American companies - Exxon, Mobil Texaco, Gulf and Chevron owned another 40%, the rest were in the hands of the French, the Dutch, and others. The American government justified its intervention in the affairs of Iran by saying that the national movement, which sought to eliminate the economic privileges of the West, was allegedly playing into the hands of the communists. Economic resources that remained outside the direct control of the West could well, as the Americans argued, be under the control of the USSR.

National Movement in the Arab World. In Iraq, crises and popular unrest broke out for a decade. Egypt was constantly in a fever due to political instability and mass demonstrations - from February 1946 until the Free Officers organization took power in July 1952. Military coups took place in Syria in 1949, 1951 and 1954. The main reason for these speeches there was dissatisfaction with Western interference in political, military and economic matters, American and British control of the Iraqi oil industry, British and French control of the Suez Canal, and the defeat that Arab troops suffered in 1948 in the war with Israel. The largest pan-Arab political entities were the Ba'ath Party (Arab Socialist Renaissance Party, PASV) and the Movement of Arab Nationalists (DAN). The creation of DAN is associated with the name of the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Palestinian wing of this movement later transformed into the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front (DFLP). DAN was represented by the Arif brothers' regimes in Iraq from 1963-1968, and was influential in North Yemen and South Yemen in the 1960s. The ideology of the Arab national-patriotic movement, formulated in particular by the Baath Party, was essentially secular, while recognizing that Islam is the main unifying force in the Arab world. This ideology called for Arab political and economic unity and for overcoming the artificial borders set by Europeans. Unlike the DAN, the Ba'ath did receive state power in Syria and Iraq, although it quickly split into two independent and even hostile movements. The rivals of the Arab national-patriotic movement were local communist parties. In Iraq and Sudan, where the communists were strong, they organized trade unions and worked among the poorest sections. In the non-Arab Near and Middle East, the Communists enjoyed significant influence in Iran, where they operated through the Tudeh (People's) Party. Less powerful but still influential communist parties existed in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian movement. Although the communists were persecuted everywhere, they had a significant impact on the Arab national-patriotic forces. The concept of Arab nationalism developed by Abdel Nasser and the Baathist regimes was a modified version of the demands and programs originally formulated by the communists. This partly explains why Abdel Nasser and the Ba'athists were considered leftists.

Egypt and the Arab National Movement. Egypt, with its largest population, army and industrial base among the Arab countries, dominated the post-war Arab world. The military coup carried out by the Free Officers in July 1952 was preceded by friction with Great Britain, which kept military forces in the Suez Canal zone under the terms of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936. After the war, combined with the growing social demands of the unemployed and wage earners, this led to large-scale strikes and street demonstrations that began in February 1946 and ended with the imposition of martial law in May 1948. The campaign against the British occupation resumed in October 1951: the new Wafdist government denounced the 1936 treaty, and a guerrilla war began against the British military contingent. Egypt rejected the proposal of Great Britain, France, the United States and Turkey to create a defense organization of the countries of the Near and Middle East, whose headquarters would be located on the site of a British military base. In January 1952, British tanks bombarded a police station in Ismailia, killing dozens of Egyptians, the incident led to riots during which much of the center of Cairo was burned and many foreigners died. The tense situation persisted for six months, after which the Free Officers organization, led by Lieutenant Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, took power on July 22, 1952 and forced King Farouk to abdicate. June 18, 1953 Egypt was proclaimed a republic. In March 1954, the struggle for power intensified within the Free Officers organization. The winner of this struggle was Abdel Nasser, who became president as a result of a plebiscite in 1956. The new regime compromised with Britain on a number of issues. If earlier Egypt demanded its sovereignty over Sudan, which was occupied by the British, then in 1953 he agreed to give Sudan the right to choose between entering into an alliance with Egypt and declaring independence. In August 1954, Great Britain agreed to evacuate its base at Suez, but retained the right to reoccupy it for seven years if any Arab state or Turkey was subjected to aggression. Egypt's attempt to chart a new course ran into opposition from the United States, which sought to create an alliance of Arab states directed against the USSR. Although Abdel Nasser, like other Arab rulers, did not hesitate to repress the communists, he was firmly convinced of the need to pursue an independent foreign and military policy. After the Israeli attack on the Egyptian post in Gaza in February 1955, Egypt tried to purchase American weapons, but the US continued to insist that such supplies should be part of a full-fledged military alliance. In April 1955, at the first conference of non-aligned countries in Bandung (Indonesia), Abdel Nasser most consistently defended "positive neutrality," which US Secretary of State John Dulles regarded as immoral and playing into the hands of the USSR. The US and UK tried to strengthen the monarchy in Iraq as a counterweight to Egypt by creating a military alliance known as the Baghdad Pact. Great Britain, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Iraq became members of the pact. Attempts by Western countries to attract other Arab countries were unsuccessful due to the opposition of Abdel Nasser. Negotiations on Western economic assistance, in particular on financing the construction of the high-rise Aswan Dam, continued into 1956, but Abdel Nasser's consistent advocacy of the principles of "positive neutrality" forced Dulles to withdraw the offer of American assistance in July 1956. Great Britain followed the example of the United States. In response, Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, saying that the profits from its operation would go to the construction of a high-rise dam. Abdel Nasser pledged to compensate the owners of the channel's shares and to abide by all international agreements governing its use. But the challenge was political, not legal. Egypt now controlled the waterway that brought most of the oil from the Persian Gulf to Europe. More significant was the impact this move could have on the Arab oil-producing countries. In Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, strikes and demonstrations called for nationalization. The influence of Abdel Nasser was also seen in the political unrest in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. Over the next few months, Great Britain and France developed a plan to attack Egypt in order to overthrow Abdel Nasser, return the Suez Canal and stop Egyptian aid to Algeria, where an armed struggle for independence from France had been going on since 1954. Israel saw this as an opportunity to lift the Egyptian blockade of its maritime traffic in the Gulf of Aqaba and the Suez Canal. On October 29, 1956, Israel attacked Egypt and occupied most of the Sinai Peninsula; British and French aircraft bombarded the country, and the troops of these countries occupied Port Said under the pretext that hostilities between Egypt and Israel posed a threat to the canal. However, the US considered the aggression inexpedient and joined the diplomatic campaign for the withdrawal of troops. Britain and France withdrew their troops from Egypt in January 1957, the last Israeli military left its territory in March 1957.

Eisenhower Doctrine. The Suez crisis was a turning point, after which the leading role in the region passed from the UK to the US. US approval of Abdel Nasser as a spokesman for a sustainable nationalist alternative to communist influence in the region has been replaced by a growing conviction that Nasser's version of Arab nationalism, with its emphasis on neutrality in the Cold War, is capable of undermining the position of the West. In January 1957, US President Eisenhower announced a program of military assistance to governments threatened by countries "controlled by international communism." Egypt and Syria were meant, buying weapons from the USSR and other socialist countries. The Eisenhower Doctrine called on pro-Western regimes to attribute their internal difficulties to the intrigues of the USSR or its agent Egypt. In April 1957, King Hussein of Jordan, citing the threat of "international communism," arrested Prime Minister Suleiman Nabulusi, dissolved parliament, banned political parties, and imposed martial law. The US responded with arms shipments, economic aid, and naval maneuvers in the eastern Mediterranean. The Eisenhower Doctrine was received more lukewarmly in Syria, where five military coups took place after 1949 as a result of internal struggles. In August-September 1957, Syria announced that it had uncovered a US-backed plot to overthrow the government. Near the northern borders of Syria, Turkish troops carried out large-scale maneuvers and were ready to intervene under any pretext. The powerful diplomatic support provided by the USSR to Syria helped to prevent the development of events according to this scenario. In Lebanon, the Maronite-dominated government of Camille Chamoun announced its anti-communist stance in order to gain US support in the fight against local nationalists.

United Arab Republic. February 1, 1958 Egypt and Syria announced the creation of a union of two countries, called the United Arab Republic (UAR). The Ba'athist-led Syrian regime proposed to Abdel Nasser to unite the two states. Abdel Nasser agreed, but on terms that gave Egypt an edge and kept all other political forces, including the Ba'athists and the Communists, out of influence. In Lebanon, the civil war continued between the Arab national forces and their opponents. On July 14, 1958, the Arab national forces came to power in Iraq as a result of a revolution. In response, the US and Britain sent troops to Lebanon and Jordan to thwart national advances in those countries and prepare for a possible invasion of Iraq. However, repeated assurances by the new leader of the Iraqi regime, Abdel Kerim Qassem, that Western oil interests would not be harmed, and the absence of any political base for counter-revolution, prompted the US and Britain to abandon military intervention. These events, which seemed to promise benefits to Abdel Nasser, in fact turned into new difficulties. A political struggle for power broke out in Iraq between coalitions of varying composition, which included Arab national forces, communists and Kurdish nationalists, a struggle that continued until the second Baathist coup in July 1968. Neither Qasem himself nor his successors were ready to join the OAR. Despite the enormous personal popularity of Abdel Nasser, no Arab state joined the UAR. The Syrian-Egyptian alliance itself collapsed in September 1961, mainly because of the contradictions associated with the predominance of Egypt. After the Baathist revolutions of 1963 in Syria and Iraq, attempts to negotiate a tripartite alliance with Egypt ended in failure. In November, conservative nationalist officer Abdel Salam Arif ousted the Iraqi Ba'athists from power.

War in Yemen. The national revolution came to the Arabian Peninsula on September 26, 1962, when army officers deposed the ruling imam and proclaimed the Arab Republic of Yemen. The Imam and his predecessors kept Yemen in political and economic isolation. The Imam enjoyed the support of some tribes, as well as Saudi Arabia, but Egypt came to the aid of the new republican regime. Up to 70,000 Egyptian soldiers participated in the ensuing civil war, but they never succeeded in bringing the country under the new regime. The war in Yemen exhausted Egypt politically and financially, and Egyptian troops were withdrawn from the country after the war with Israel in 1967. The war also contributed to the start of an insurgency in the British colony of Aden and the surrounding hinterland. Great Britain left Aden at the end of November 1967, and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen was created on the site of the former colony. The presence of Egyptian troops in the Arabian Peninsula facilitated the transfer of power from King Saud to Crown Prince (later King) Faisal. Together with King Hussein of Jordan, Faisal launched a counteroffensive against the radicals inspired by Abdel Nasser. Saudi Arabia in 1962 created the League of Islamic States, and in 1966 convened the first Conference of Islamic Heads of State. Subsequently, the League became the main channel for financing Islamic political forces throughout the Arab world and even outside the Near and Middle East. After the victory of the Algerian national forces over France in 1962, the ranks of the radical nationalists were replenished. However, by the mid-1960s, the inability of the national-patriotic forces to solve the problem of Arab unity became clear.

OPEC. When the conflict over the nationalization of oil production in Iran reached a critical point, the main companies made a preemptive move against the advancement of similar political demands by the Arab countries, proposing in 1950 to divide oil profits in the proportion of 50:50. Companies were in charge of calculating profits, and by controlling processing, transportation, and marketing, they were able to distribute income in the most profitable way for themselves. Oil exports increased quickly enough to meet the growing world demand and compensate for the interruption of supplies from Iran in 1951-1953. Together with the increased share of the Arab oil-producing countries in the income, this provided an influx of huge funds. Between 1948 and 1960, the oil-producing countries of the Near and Middle East generated $9.5 billion in revenues. The net income of oil companies in the Near and Middle East during this period amounted to more than $14 billion. The influx of such sums had serious political consequences. . These funds were under the control of the regimes, most of which were brought to power by Western countries or relied on their support. The money was also used to create a political base among merchants, landowners and other representatives of the upper strata. At the same time, educational and medical institutions, transport and communication facilities were built, which created new jobs throughout the region. Especially many Palestinians and Egyptians came to the countries of the Persian Gulf. In Iraq, huge sums were spent on irrigation and other economic development projects. However, in Iraq, where land and other wealth were unevenly divided, the main benefits were received by a small part of the population. The proceeds from the sale of oil influenced the dynamics of political processes throughout the region. The economy developed, the positions of the state bureaucracy, the army and the secret police strengthened. In April 1959, the First Arab Petroleum Congress was held in Cairo. In September 1960, after the unilateral decision of oil companies to reduce prices, and hence the incomes of producing states, a meeting was convened by the oil ministers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran and Venezuela, at which the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was established. More than a decade passed before OPEC, which had grown to 13 members, succeeded in bringing oil prices back to their early 1959 levels. prevent a decline in the income of producing countries by forcing companies to cover losses. By 1969 the real distribution of profits was about 62:38 in favor of producing countries.

Palestinian movement. In the mid-1960s, a new force emerged in the Arab world. For the first time since the Palestinian uprising of 1936-1939, independent Palestinian groups began to gain strength. After 1956, Yasser Arafat and other activists who lived outside of Palestine created an underground organization that later became Fatah (Arabic for "victory" is a reversed abbreviation of the organization's full Arabic name, the Palestine Liberation Movement). At a summit meeting in Cairo in January 1964, the heads of Arab states created the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO); The PLO remained a creature of the Arab regimes until 1967. On January 1, 1965, Fatah, then not part of the PLO, carried out the first armed action - an attack on a water pumping station in Israel. For most Palestinians, this date marks the beginning of the liberation movement. In Syria, in February 1966, the left wing of the Ba'ath Party came to power. The new regime allowed Palestinian militias based in Syria to carry out raids against Israel directly from its territory or through Jordan. In response, Israel attacked the village of el-Sama in the West Bank in November 1966, the same time that Egypt and Syria restored relations and signed a defensive pact. Abdel Nasser intended to contain Syrian military activity against Israel. An Israeli air raid on Syria in April 1967 sharply aggravated the situation in the region. In May 1967, Israel warned Syria about the inadmissibility of new Palestinian actions. Abdel Nasser, referring to Soviet intelligence reports, accused Israel of preparing a large-scale attack on Syria. He sent troops into the Sinai, violating the ceasefire that ended the 1956 war. Syria and Jordan claimed that Abdel Nasser was hiding behind UN peacekeepers. Nasser asked the UN to withdraw these forces. The request was granted. When Abdel Nasser announced the resumption of the blockade of Israeli shipping through the Strait of Tiran at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, which had been carried out until 1956, Israel enlisted the support of the Western powers and prepared for a preemptive strike.

June War 1967. On June 5, 1967, Israeli air forces attacked Egyptian airfields and destroyed most of the Egyptian aviation on the ground. The Israeli ground forces crushed the Egyptian army and, after two days of fighting, reached the Suez Canal. Two days later, Israel defeated the Jordanian forces, taking the West Bank and old Jerusalem. About 200 thousand Palestinians fled across the Jordan River. In the next two days, Israel captured the Syrian Golan Heights. Abdel Nasser knew that his armed forces were inferior to the Israelis, but he could not have foreseen such a lightning defeat. Most likely, the Egyptian leader overestimated the ability and desire of the United States to influence Israel in order to resolve the crisis diplomatically, as well as the readiness of the USSR to take the side of Egypt. Unlike the Suez War of 1956, the Six Day War of 1967 resulted in a diplomatic stalemate. Egypt and some other Arab countries severed relations with the US and Britain, accusing them of complicity in the aggression. The USSR severed relations with Israel. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 242 in November 1967 calling on Israel to withdraw from territories occupied during the war in exchange for peace treaties and diplomatic recognition. However, the resolution did not specify whether this applied to all occupied territories. The Palestinians were mentioned in it only as refugees. The Arab states at the summit meeting in Khartoum (Sudan) in September 1967 approved the readiness of Egypt and Jordan to seek a political solution, while declaring, together with Syria, Iraq and Algeria, that this does not mean recognition of Israel or the conclusion of a peace treaty. The June 1967 war changed the balance of power in the region, giving Israel military superiority over any coalition of Arabs. It dramatically changed the alignment of political forces in the Arab world, accelerating the fall of the influence of radical national regimes and the rise of conservative monarchies. At the same time, the war contributed to the growth of the Palestinian resistance movement and the strengthening of radical liberation forces in South Yemen and Oman. Internationally, the closure of the Suez Canal exacerbated the financial crisis in the UK and contributed to its surrender of its military and political positions in the Persian Gulf. Finally, as a result of the war, there has been a gradual but decisive shift in US policy from a "hands-off" approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict to a closer military and political alliance with Israel. The June war of 1967 increased the significance of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in comparison with the Arab-Israeli one. The leading Palestinian military organizations were Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The latter grew out of the former Arab Nationalist Movement and by the end of 1968 split into the PFLP and the Democratic Popular Front. Fatah represented a broad front of forces that believed that not the Arab states, but the Palestinian movement should lead the fight against Israel. The Popular Front and the Democratic Front occupied Marxist positions. In 1968, these organizations merged with the PLO, created by the Arab states in 1964. Smaller groups enjoyed the support of the Arab states, mainly Syria, Iraq and Libya. In March 1968, a large formation of Israeli ground forces attacked a Palestinian camp in the Jordanian village of Karameh. The Palestinians held their ground and hit the Israelis with a heavy retaliatory blow. After the incident in Karameh, the popularity of the Palestinian resistance forces in the Arab world has increased dramatically, and thousands of Palestinians have joined its ranks. Palestinian forces clashed with Jordanian, Lebanese and other Arab armies, as well as Israel. The indiscipline and cruelty of the Palestinian detachments exacerbated the conflicts between the Arab states, especially Jordan and Lebanon, on the one hand, and the PLO, on the other. For several years, numerous and popular Palestinian organizations in Jordan threatened the power of King Hussein. Hostilities between Israel and Egypt resumed in 1969 when Egypt fired on Israeli positions in the Sinai and thus began a two-year "war of attrition". In the summer of 1970, in an attempt to disrupt US-sponsored negotiations between Israel, Egypt and Jordan, the PFLP carried out several hijackings and directly challenged the Jordanian regime. This led to the fact that in September 1970 the Jordanian army launched a full-scale offensive against Palestinian bases and refugee camps. Iraq has refused to fulfill its previous promises to help the Palestinians with the 30,000 Iraqi troops stationed in Jordan. Part of the Syrian troops intervened, but this caused a split within the Syrian leadership and led to a military coup led by the commander of the air force, Hafez al-Assad. The US-backed Israeli threat to intervene on King Hussein's side convinced the Syrians of the need to quickly withdraw their troops. As a result, 25 thousand Palestinian fighters were forced to confront the Jordanian army of 60-75 thousand, which had a significant superiority in firepower. The ceasefire agreement was reached as a result of the diplomatic intervention of the Arab countries under the leadership of Abdel Nasser. In September 1970, Abdel Nasser died of a heart attack. Anwar Sadat became president. Almost immediately, in February 1971, Sadat expressed his readiness for a political settlement, abandoning the demands of the Arab states for the complete withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories, and offered to reopen the Suez Canal in exchange for a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Sinai Peninsula. In May 1971, Sadat arrested the main rivals in the government and took control of the country into his own hands. A crisis erupted in Egypt, riots swept through schools and factories. This forced Sadat to establish close allied relations with the United States in foreign policy and with the big Egyptian bourgeoisie in domestic policy. In July 1972, encouraged by King Faisal, Sadat expelled 17,000 Soviet military advisers from the country. However, neither Israel nor the United States reacted to the change in the situation. From 1971-1973 US military supplies to Israel continued to increase. So Sadat prepared to break the political stalemate by taking the initiative on the Suez front.

The oil factor after 1967. After the June war of 1967, important changes took place that affected oil production in the Near and Middle East. Saudi Arabia and Iran sought to increase government revenues by boosting oil exports. However, the political future looked uncertain. In 1968-1971 Great Britain formally withdrew from the dependent Arab territories. The seven emirates in the Persian Gulf, formerly known as the Trucial States, became the United Arab Emirates, while Bahrain and Qatar became independent states. In July 1970, Britain ousted the Sultan of Oman, Said bin Taimur, putting his son Qaboos in power to continue the war against the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Gulf (OPLF), which was based in Dhofar province in western Oman, bordering South Yemen. After the June 1967 war, Egypt withdrew its troops from North Yemen. The Republican regime held on to power there after its defenders repulsed Saudi-backed royalists during a ten-week siege of the capital Sana'a in December 1967-February 1968. The prospects for the US to take Britain's place in the Persian Gulf were overshadowed by the Vietnam War. In May 1972, President R. Nixon and National Security Adviser H. Kissinger went to Iran, where they agreed to supply the Shah with the latest weapons systems, with which Iran could guard the interests of the West in the Persian Gulf region. Over the next six years, Iran made purchases of American weapons worth $10 billion. After the Suez War of 1956, Western oil companies, seeking to reduce their dependence on cheap oil from the Persian Gulf, made large investments in Libya. Libya was close to European markets and oil did not need to be transported through the Suez Canal. Libya delivered its first oil in 1963; by 1968, it exported approx. 3 million barrels per day. In an effort to avoid dependence on oil from the Persian Gulf, the oil magnates allowed Libya to become the main supplier of oil for some companies and several European countries. September 1, 1969 a group of Libyan army officers led by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi seized power. The new Libyan government, taking advantage of the vulnerability of Western companies, sought to achieve parity in oil revenues with the countries of the Persian Gulf. In 1971, some members of OPEC took advantage of this situation and raised the price of crude oil, reversing a more than decade-long downward trend in prices. Some states achieved both political and economic goals: Iraq, Algeria and Libya established control over the oil industry and ensured that the issue of nationalization remained on the agenda of OPEC meetings until the end of the decade. Two other events contributed to the sharp rise in oil prices in 1971. One of them was due to the economic difficulties experienced by the leading Western capitalist countries, especially the United States. Since oil exports were paid in US dollars, inflation and exchange rate instability posed a threat to the economies of oil-exporting states. In addition, the major oil companies had nothing against the rise in prices, as a result of which their incomes increased significantly. The second factor that contributed to the rise in prices in the early 1970s was the growing political tension in the region. Part of the exported oil went through pipelines from Saudi Arabia and Iraq to terminals in Lebanon and Syria.

The October War of 1973. This war revealed two different conflicts: one between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the other related to the efforts of the oil-producing states, which, together with Western oil companies, sought to take advantage of a temporary shortage of oil to significantly increase prices. On the morning of October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria launched an offensive against Israeli troops who occupied the Suez Canal and the Golan Heights. The impressive gains of the Arabs in the early stages of the war were partially lost as a result of the successes of the Israelis in the second week of battles. Nevertheless, Sadat managed to achieve his goal - to involve the United States in negotiations on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Sinai Peninsula. In early 1974, a ceasefire was reached, and in September 1975, Israel partially withdrew its troops from the peninsula. On October 16, 1973, ten days after the start of the war, the OPEC countries raised the price of crude oil by 70% (from $3 to $5 per barrel). On October 22, Arab oil-producing states responded to Egyptian and Syrian demands to cut oil production and impose an embargo on US oil sales in retaliation for US arms sales to Israel. American, European and Japanese oil companies immediately raised oil prices. At the OPEC meeting on December 22, it was decided to raise prices by another 128%, so that the price per barrel exceeded $11, of which exporting countries received $7. Increasing incomes and budgets in the oil-producing states have enabled them to embark on gigantic construction projects that have attracted large numbers of skilled and unskilled labor from the Arab world and beyond. The Near and Middle East has become a major export market for the US and other industrial countries.

Camp David Accords. In early 1977, the new American administration of President John Carter tried to organize multilateral negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab conflict, but it failed to solve the problem of the representation of the Palestinians. The PLO refused to make serious concessions. Israel, especially after the victory in the elections in July 1977 of the right bloc Likud under the leadership of Menachem Begin, rejected this possibility. The joint Soviet-American communiqué of October 1, 1977, calling for the convening of an international conference in Geneva, did not suit Israel, since it mentioned "the legitimate rights of the Palestinians." Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was extremely interested in the negotiations. They would allow him to get the extra American help and investment that the country's economy needed. Earlier, in January 1977, his government had been forced to raise the price of basic foodstuffs, including bread, in order to obtain loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Then unrest began in Cairo and other large cities. In the fall of 1977, when President Carter's diplomatic efforts seemed to have stalled, Sadat announced that he was ready to go to Jerusalem to negotiate with Israel without any preconditions. This happened at the end of November. Several inconclusive meetings followed between Begin and Sadat. In an attempt to advance negotiations, Carter invited the two leaders to Camp David, the presidential residence near Washington. There, a package of agreements was drawn up that dealt mainly with Israeli-Egyptian relations and offered "autonomy" for the Palestinians. The Camp David Accords became the basis for further negotiations, which culminated in the signing of a peace treaty by Israel, Egypt and the United States on March 26, 1979 in Washington. The agreement took into account Israeli conditions - the Palestinian issue was taken out of the context of Israeli-Egyptian relations. The PLO and most of the Arab states condemned the treaty. Probably, it was the rejection of the treaty that became the reason for the assassination attempt on Sadat by the opposition-minded military on October 6, 1981, as a result of which he was killed. Sadat's successor was Vice President and former Air Force Commander Hosni Mubarak, and the peace treaty went ahead. Israel completed its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in April 1982.

Civil War in Lebanon. After the Palestinian resistance movement was defeated in 1970-1971, Lebanon became its main base, where more than 300,000 Palestinian refugees have lived since the 1948 war. The stability of the Lebanese political system was hampered for a long time by intertwined religious and class contradictions and strife, and once, in 1957-1958, the situation was already close to an explosion. The economic and political life of Lebanon was controlled by a handful of families of large landowners and merchants. State posts were distributed in accordance with the established procedure among various religious movements, with the highest posts being reserved for Maronite Christians. New social forces - the middle class of Sunni Muslims, students and the Shiite peasantry, among which radical sentiments were growing rapidly - were unhappy with the dominance of the old ruling families. The Christian Maronite party, the Falange, fought to save the existing system. Fighting for the Palestinian cause was a rallying cry for the Lebanese left, and the Palestinians were also looking for allies among opposition parties and militias. Using the Israeli raids against the Palestinian camps as a pretext, the Maronite old guard and the Phalanx blamed the Palestinians for social tensions in Lebanon. Tensions escalated over the course of several months, and in April 1975, the Phalangists attacked a bus filled with Palestinians, thus starting a civil war. In 1975, the main battles were fought between the militia formations of the right and left forces of Lebanon. In early 1976, right-wing forces laid siege to the Palestinian camps. Thereafter, the PLO forces joined forces with the Lebanese opposition militias, and by July 1976 the "joint forces", as they were called, were close to defeating the Phalangist-led right. Syria, which used to support the Lebanese opposition, now came out on the side of the right with a force of 5,000 troops to restore the truce. As a result, the balance of power more or less stabilized. Israel attacked Palestinian civilian targets, and in March 1978, in response to a Palestinian sortie, invaded southern Lebanon. One consequence has been an even closer rapprochement between Israel and the Falangist-led right. Another was the birth of the Shia political movement Amal. Fighting in the south continued for more than three years as Israel escalated its efforts to force the Lebanese to expel the Palestinians. During an Israeli air raid on the center of Beirut in July 1981, more than 1,000 Palestinians and Lebanese were killed and wounded. Then, with the mediation of the United States, a ceasefire agreement was reached between Israel and the PLO, which lasted almost a year. The July 1981 ceasefire agreement was beneficial to Israel. It allowed the PLO to demonstrate that it is a powerful political force in Lebanon and even more insistently demand the representation of the Palestinians in any political negotiations regarding their future. On June 6, 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon with the aim of destroying the PLO and securing victory in the upcoming presidential elections in Lebanon for Falangist leader Bashir Gemayel. By the end of the first week, Israel had isolated Syria and laid siege to Beirut. The siege continued until the end of the summer, when American, French and Italian troops entered the city to oversee the withdrawal of PLO forces from there. At the end of August, when the Lebanese parliament building was surrounded by Israeli tanks, Bashir Gemayel was elected president of Lebanon. After his assassination a few weeks later, Israel occupied western Beirut and the Phalangists massacred hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the Beirut camps of Sabra and Shatila. In place of Bashir Gemayel, his brother Amin was elected. American troops returned to Lebanon as "peacekeeping forces" and turned into a combatant, as the administration of US President Ronald Reagan tried to help Gemayel establish control over this country. However, in February 1984, American troops were withdrawn from Lebanon after the death in October 1983 of more than 240 US Marines. Amin Gemayel remained president, but most of the country, including large areas of Beirut, was out of government control. After the Israeli invasion, the PLO and most of the Lebanese forces split. The Fatah organization, which occupied a special position, supported by Syria and Libya, forcibly ousted the units loyal to Arafat from northern Lebanon. The Shia opposition split into several factions that collaborated with Syria and Iran, and within the Falange there were movements oriented towards Israel and Syria. The Palestinians in the camps endured a series of long and bloody sieges, mostly by the Syrian-backed Amal movement. These tests contributed to the reunification of the main forces of the PLO inside and outside Lebanon, primarily due to Arafat's desire to negotiate in alliance with King Hussein of Jordan and Egyptian President Mubarak. Israel, backed by the US, rejected these attempts at reconciliation, and the alliance between Arafat and Hussein was destroyed.

Iranian revolution. The rise in oil revenues in the 1970s led to major social upheavals and political tensions. In Iran, as in other countries, there was a migration of poor peasants to large cities. The inflationary boom of the beginning of the decade by 1977 was replaced by a period of recession in business activity. The economic crisis turned into a political revolution because the regime failed to create a political base among the middle classes, employees and students, i.e. among the groups whose numbers increased significantly in a quarter of a century after the restoration of the Shah's power in 1953. The Shah's government destroyed and banned independent political parties, trade unions and professional associations. In 1975, it created the only state party, the Renaissance Party, to bring under direct control the powerful and numerous market traders and the Shia religious elite. The alienation of basic social classes, old and new, led to the rapid collapse of the old order. In November 1977 and January 1978, the first clashes between students and the police took place. The commemoration of the dead on the fortieth day, as prescribed by Shiite religious institutions, resulted in a series of new performances. Throughout May 1978, students, qualified specialists, small traders and part of the clergy joined the ranks of the opposition. By July they were joined by city factory and construction workers. On September 7, 1978, half a million Iranians from all walks of life took to the streets of Tehran. The regime imposed martial law, and the next day troops opened fire and killed hundreds of demonstrators. The ensuing demonstrations, strikes and clashes forced Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi to flee Iran in January 1979. A broad opposition front represented old and new classes, expressed secular and religious political tendencies, but only one person personified the revolution - Ayatollah Khomeini. He first showed himself as an open opponent of the Shah in 1962-1963, and by the end of 1981 Khomeini and his associates from the Shiite clergy in the Islamic Republican Party reigned supreme in the country. Most of the other organizations and leaders who played an important role in the overthrow of the Shah ended up in prison or exile.

Iran-Iraq war. An important factor in strengthening the Islamic regime in Iran was the Iraqi invasion of this country in September 1980. The reason for Iraq's dissatisfaction was the 1975 treaty, which provided Iran with access to the Shatt al-Arab, the waterway along which the border between the two countries passes in the extreme south. In exchange, Iran agreed to stop helping Kurdish rebels fighting against the Iraqi government. A more specific reason was Iraqi concern about the propaganda carried out by Iran among the Iraqi Shiites, who made up about half of Iraq's population but were poorly represented in the political and economic elite. The main motive, however, was Iraq's belief in the fragility of the regime in Iran. Iraq's goal was to establish itself as the dominant power in the Persian Gulf. By February 1981, it was clear that Iraq's strategic plans had failed. Both sides hardened their positions, adding to the previously announced military goals the overthrow of the enemy regime. In March 1982, Iran went on the offensive, and in June, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced that Iraq would withdraw troops from Iran. Iran conducted several more major offensives in the area along the border, but failed to break through the Iraqi defensive lines. The threat of Iranian victory in 1983 contributed to the emergence of an unusual alliance of regional and international forces, which were united by a common goal - to prevent the defeat of Iraq. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia provided huge loans, Kuwait became a transshipment point for maritime transportation of Iraqi military and civilian imports. Egypt and Jordan provided weapons and military advisers. Only Syria and Libya sided with Iran. Internationally, Iraq was dependent on France and the USSR as its main arms suppliers. Although the US was officially neutral, it provided Iraq with agricultural loans, helicopters and transport aircraft. The US has also built military installations in Saudi Arabia, Oman and other areas of the Persian Gulf. In the spring of 1984, Iraq attempted to resolve the ground war stalemate by attacking Iranian oil export facilities and tankers. Similar sorties were made in the future, but did not greatly affect Iranian oil exports. Another goal of Iraq was to use the threat of an expansion of the war in order for the Western powers and the USSR to jointly force Iran to begin negotiations on the end of hostilities. At the end of 1986, information was made public that the United States, at least since 1985, had been secretly selling weapons to Iran through Israel. The Reagan administration said this was done in order to establish long-term working relationships with key Iranian leaders. The immediate goal was to secure the release of Americans who were being held hostage in Lebanon by a group close to Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The Reagan initiative failed to achieve any of its goals, which caused a political crisis in the United States. In 1987, Kuwait asked the US and the USSR to protect its tankers from the threat of an Iranian attack. The Reagan administration, seeking to reduce Soviet influence in the Gulf and divert attention from arms sales to Iran, re-registered Kuwaiti tankers as US-flagged ships and sent warships to escort them across the Gulf. After an Iraqi missile attack on the American destroyer USS Stark in May 1987, Washington was forced to increase its military presence in the Persian Gulf, which caused clashes with Iranian naval forces. These developments, along with Iran's failure to score a single decisive victory in recent ground offensives, have piqued its interest in reaching a UN-brokered ceasefire. The United States made considerable efforts to ensure that the Security Council in July 1987 adopted a ceasefire resolution No. 598, which took into account the interests of Iraq as much as possible. In 1988, during ground offensive operations (including the use of poison gases), Iraq managed to dislodge Iranian troops from most of Iraqi territory, which they had captured in the previous four years, and Iraqi warplanes and Soviet-supplied missiles attacked major Iranian cities. and economic entities. US intervention on the side of Iraq - diplomatic in the UN and military in the Gulf - turned bloody on July 3, 1988, when a US warship mistakenly shot down an Iranian civilian aircraft, killing 290 people. Two weeks later, the Iranian government accepted the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 598. The ceasefire agreement continued into 1989, but little progress was made in negotiations even on such basic issues as the mutual withdrawal of troops and the repatriation of prisoners of war. Inside Iran, the political struggle continued between those in the regime who advocated strengthening the gains of the revolution by addressing urgent economic and social needs, and those who called for more decisive action against Iran's enemies. This struggle did not stop even after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini on June 3, 1989. President Ali Khamenei became the head of state. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, after the cessation of hostilities, launched an offensive against the Iraqi Kurds, using chemical weapons, and expelled tens of thousands of peaceful Kurds into Turkey. Iraq continued its longstanding rivalry with Syria by providing military assistance to Maronite Christians in Lebanon.

Palestinian intifada. At the summit meeting of the Arab League in Amman (Jordan) in November 1987, the main topic of the agenda was to support Iraq in the war with Iran. For the first time in almost 30 years, the Arab and Palestinian conflict with Israel was barely mentioned in the discussions and resolutions of the summit. Later, some Palestinian observers noted that the meeting in Amman was one of the reasons for the mass uprising (intifada) against the Israeli occupation, which broke out in early December 1987 in the Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The Arab Summit and the meeting between R. Reagan and MS Gorbachev a month later showed that the problems of the Palestinians would not be taken seriously and that an "external" solution would not follow. By January 1988, it became clear that the intifada was qualitatively different from previous massive Palestinian uprisings against Israeli military domination. It quickly went beyond the refugee camps and covered the entire Palestinian population of the territories occupied by Israel. After a year and a half of the intifada, a regime of dual power has taken shape in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. While the Israeli military still held administrative power, the United National Rebellion Command, which represented the four major political groups (Fatah, Popular Front, Democratic Front, and Communist Party), as well as Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, held political power. The uprising had important political implications for the Palestinian national movement. It has helped to shift the center of political gravity "outside" in the Palestinian communities of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and elsewhere in the Arab world "inside" to the Palestinian communities under Israeli rule. The National Council of Palestine, meeting in Algiers in November 1988, recorded this shift by unambiguously declaring a plan to create an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital. On July 31, King Hussein of Jordan cut off all contacts with the West Bank through the judiciary and the executive branch. The uprising increased political polarization within Israel. Parliamentary elections held in November 1988 did not provide an unconditional mandate to negotiate a settlement with the Palestinian leadership, but the uprising ended the illusion that the status quo could continue. The uprising also had some foreign policy impact, including on the United States. In mid-December 1988, following a meeting of the Palestinian National Council and in response to diplomatic moves by the Palestinians, the US government lifted a long-standing ban on negotiations with the PLO.

Gulf War (1990-1991). After its success in the war with Iran, Iraq began to increasingly aggressively seek military and political leadership in the Arab world. However, its economy was extremely sensitive to any decline in oil prices, since Iraq spent most of its income on military needs. Overproduction of oil in Kuwait accelerated the fall in prices, which caused a crisis that culminated in the Iraqi invasion and annexation of Kuwait in August 1990. The United States, under the auspices of the UN, created a coalition of more than 20 countries that was ready to start a war against Iraq to drive out its troops from Kuwait. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Syria and the smaller Gulf states joined the US-led coalition, while Jordan, Yemen, Algeria, Sudan and the PLO called for a settlement through inter-Arab negotiations. Turkey and Saudi Arabia blocked oil pipelines from Iraq and provided airfields for coalition aviation. The United States persuaded Israel not to participate in the war, despite the fact that Iraq launched missile attacks on it, rightly assuming that the Arab members of the multinational force would refuse to participate in a coalition that would include Israel. The war against Iraq began in January 1991. After intense bombing for five weeks, coalition ground forces invaded Kuwait and southern Iraq and defeated the Iraqi army.

Accords in Oslo. After the Gulf War, the US managed to find a diplomatic formula that allowed Israel and its Arab adversaries to attend a peace conference on the Middle East. The conference opened in Madrid on October 30, 1991, and featured bilateral discussions between Israel and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, between Israel and Lebanon, and between Israel and Syria. In February 1992 Israeli and Palestinian delegations began direct negotiations on self-government in the West Bank and Gaza. In parallel with the Madrid Conference, secret negotiations took place between Israel and the PLO in Oslo, which ended with the signing in Washington on September 13, 1993 of a joint Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles. The document determined the conditions for granting autonomy to the Gaza Strip and Jericho by December, after which limited self-government was introduced in the West Bank for a five-year transitional period. It was envisaged that during this period an elected Palestinian state body would exercise power functions in relation to the Palestinians permanently residing there, and the armed police of the PLO would maintain order. The agreement, as one might expect, met with the support of the world community. Morocco recognized Israel, Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan. However, within Israel and among the Palestinians, the agreement has sparked new, even sharper conflicts and outbreaks of violence. The hopes for immediate results that the parties associated with the agreement turned out to be unrealistic. The Palestinians soon faced financial and administrative chaos in Gaza and Jericho due to the lack of structures to coordinate the transfer of power. While the international community promised billions of dollars to the PLO, much less was actually provided, and many Palestinians began to accuse Arafat of corruption and misappropriation of funds. After a series of bus bombings in Israel by terrorists, which injured many people, including children, the Israelis began to actively oppose the agreement and demand that Arafat put an end to terrorism. In response, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin closed the Palestinian territories, cutting off Palestinian access to Israel. This, in turn, has become a new justification for terrorist attacks against Israel. Tensions were rising in Israel, and Rabin's peace policy was facing increasingly fierce right-wing opposition. It culminated in the assassination of Rabin by a young Jewish religious extremist on November 4, 1995. Rabin's death marked a turning point in the peace process. Shimon Peres, who succeeded him as prime minister, was seen as committed to the peace process. This was confirmed by the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize (together with Rabin and Arafat) to him the previous year. However, in the elections in May 1996, right-wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu was elected prime minister, who declared his commitment to the Oslo agreements, but made it clear that he would not contribute to the emergence of an independent Palestinian state. An increase in terrorist attacks against Israelis and Arafat's apparent unwillingness to stop these activities forced the Israeli government to take an even tougher stance, and by the end of Netanyahu's first year in office, the peace process had all but ground to a halt.

post-war Iraq. The harsh economic sanctions imposed by the UN on Iraq after the Gulf War did not prevent Saddam Hussein from ruling with a firm hand. Kurdish uprisings that began after the war, seeking autonomy in northern Iraq, were quickly suppressed, forcing thousands of Kurdish refugees to flee to neighboring Iran and Turkey. Several coup attempts were thwarted, and Saddam Hussein continued to reject UN resolutions to send teams of UN inspectors to Iraq to oversee military programs. In 1995, Saddam Hussein's two sons-in-law, Hussein Kamel and Saddam Kamel, fled to Jordan. Both held high official positions. The former was in charge of Iraqi military programs, while the latter headed the presidential security service. Their high position and the support they most likely received from King Hussein of Jordan raised unfounded hopes that Saddam's regime would soon be overthrown. In response, Saddam Hussein ordered a purge of senior officials associated with defectors, followed by a spate of arrests and executions. A referendum held in October by the National Assembly solidified Saddam Hussein's grip on power by allowing him to continue as president for another seven-year term. The flight of Saddam's sons-in-law to Jordan highlighted the specifics of interstate relations in the Middle East. King Hussein quickly took refuge in the defectors and even mentioned a period of Hashemite rule in Iraq's history, which was a veiled manifestation of his expansionist aspirations. He also helped the Iraqi opposition establish bases in Amman and allowed the US to deploy fighter jets in Jordan to guard the no-fly zone in southern Iraq, which was created by the UN after the Gulf War. However, close economic ties between these countries ruled out a real gap between them. Iraq was Jordan's main supplier of oil, and a significant portion of Iraqi imports passed through the Jordanian port of Aqaba. By 1997, with international economic sanctions still in place, Iraqi trade ministers met with the Jordanian prime minister and promised customs exemptions on major Jordanian exports.

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In January 1942, under pressure from Japan, Thailand officially declared war on Great Britain and the United States. In exchange for Thailand's support, Japan agreed to transfer to it the northern Malay territories (Kelantan - Kelantan, Kedah - Kedah, Terengganu - Terengganu and Perlis - Perlis) and two Shan states. In 1941, Thailand also occupied the western provinces of Cambodia and the right-bank part of Laos, which at that time were part of French Indochina. At the final stage of the Second World War, the views of the British and Americans on the issue of a post-war settlement regarding Thailand were radically different. Britain insisted that Thailand had violated previous international agreements on British sovereignty over the territories it controlled, and recognized a state of war with Thailand.

The United States, however, preferred to view Thailand as a country occupied by the enemy, and the declaration of war as a document adopted in special circumstances and not reflecting the interests of the Thai people. The reason for this was the fact that the then Thai Ambassador to the United States, Seni Pramoj, refused to hand over the document declaring war to the Secretary of State. In Thailand, the Free Thai (Seri Thai) partisan movement also operated against Japan. From the end of 1943, the regent Pridi Phanomyong (1900-1983), an outstanding Thai politician, the head of the civil group of the People's Party, which carried out in 1932 the change of the system of government from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one, also organized resistance units against the Japanese from the end of 1943.

In July 1944, Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram, who had held this post since 1938 and decided in 1941 to stake on an alliance with Japan, was forced to resign (from 1945 to 1946). in accordance with the law on the punishment of war criminals of 1945, he was in prison and then was amnestied). With the support of Pridi Phanomiong, the government was headed by Khuang Aphaiwong, who faced the difficult task of getting Thailand out of the war as painlessly as possible, maneuvering between various political forces inland, as well as between the Japanese and local resistance.

At the end of 1945, Seni Pramot, who had returned from the United States, became prime minister. His previous experience in the United States as an ambassador was to help Thailand secure a strong ally in the face of a new alignment of forces in the international arena. The United Kingdom demanded that Thailand return all territories acquired during the war period, as well as provide 1.5 million tons of rice to neighboring British-controlled countries as reparations. Thailand also pledged to return to France the territories it occupied in 1941.

Despite the fact that during the process of negotiations it was possible to agree on payment for rice supplies, although not at the market price, and that Thailand was able to join the UN in 1946 as a result of the diplomatic efforts of Pridi Phanomiong and the cabinet, the authority of Seni Pramot's government was undermined . During the first post-war elections in January 1946, liberal-minded forces came to power, led by Pridi Phanomiong, who, however, did not take the premiership until March of that year.

In May 1946, with the active participation of Pridi Phanomiong, a new constitution was adopted in Thailand, laying the foundation for the formation of a full-fledged democratic regime. It envisaged the creation of an elected parliament (National Assembly), then it was planned to expand it through the creation of two chambers - an elected House of Representatives and a Senate appointed by the king. Political parties were formed in the country, among which were the Cooperative Party, which entered the Constitutional Front in 1946 under the leadership of Pridi Phanomiong, and the Democratic Party (Prachathipat). After the abolition of the anti-communist law in 1946, the Thai Communist Party also operated in the country.

However, despite positive institutional changes, Pridi Phanomiong's government faced a number of significant challenges. It turned out to be ineffective in solving economic problems (post-war food shortages, inflation, the deterioration of the economic situation in general), which were exacerbated by the need to ensure reparation supplies of rice.

In June 1946, King Ananda Mahidon (Rama VIII) (Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramentharamaha Ananda Mahidol Phra Atthama Ramathibodindara), who had recently returned to Thailand from Switzerland, where he was studying, was found dead in his room. Unconfirmed rumors circulated in the country about the possible involvement of Pridi Phanomiong in these events. Despite the fact that the accusations were not based on any serious grounds, in August 1946 he handed over his post to Thavap Thamropgpavatsawat (Thawan Thamrongnawasawat). The new king was the younger brother of Rama VIII - Phumiphon Adulyadej (Phra Bat Somdet Phra Paraminthra Maha Bhumibol Adulyadej Mahitalathibet Ramathibodi Chakkrinaruebodin Sayamminthrathirat Borommanatthabophit) (Rama IX, rules from 1946 to the present).

Against the background of the noted events in Thailand, the split between several political groups was aggravated. The military and the bureaucracy united around Field Marshal Plek Phibunsongkhram, who was amnestied in 1946 and reasserted himself on the political scene in Thailand.

It is interesting!

There are differing views in the historical literature as to why Pridi Phanomiong supported Plek Phibunsongkhram's amnesty after World War II and he was not severely punished as a war criminal. One explanation connects this position with the fact that before 1946 both Pridi Phanomiong and Plek Phibunsogkhram, in fact, belonged to the same patronage-client group in the political sphere. Both of them were participants in the coup of 1932 and then in the 1940s. were members of the same cabinet. At the same time, belonging to the same political party was more important than their ideological differences: Pridi Phanomiong was more left-wing, while Plek Phibunsongkhram was on the right-wing conservative positions.

Thus, in the early post-war years, although an institutional framework for democratic development was in place, Thailand's internal political divisions and difficult economic situation were not conducive to keeping civilian governments in power. Under these conditions, it was possible to establish and strengthen in the country during the 1950s-1980s. several military regimes.

The collapse of the colonial systems. The Second World War had a tremendous impact on the development of the countries of the East. A huge number of Asians and Africans participated in the battles. Only in India, 2.5 million people were drafted into the army, in all of Africa - about 1 million people (and another 2 million were employed in servicing the needs of the army). There were huge losses of the population during the battles, bombings, repressions, due to hardships in prisons and camps: 10 million people died in China during the war years, 2 million people in Indonesia, 1 million in the Philippines. losses in war zones. But along with all these grave consequences of the war, its positive results are also undeniable.

The peoples of the colonies, watching the defeat of the armies of the colonialists, first - Western, then - Japanese, forever outlived the myth of their invincibility. During the war years, the positions of different parties and leaders were clearly defined as never before.

Most importantly, during these years, a mass anti-colonial consciousness was forged and matured, which made the process of decolonization of Asia irreversible. In African countries, this process unfolded somewhat later for a number of reasons.

And although the struggle to achieve independence still required a number of years of stubborn overcoming of the attempts of traditional colonialists to return "everything old", the sacrifices made by the peoples of the East in World War II were not in vain. In the five years after the end of the war, almost all countries of South and Southeast Asia, as well as the Far East, achieved independence: Vietnam (1945), India and Pakistan (1947), Burma (1948), Philippines (1946). ). True, Vietnam had to continue to fight for another thirty years before achieving full independence and territorial integrity, other countries - less. However, in many respects the military and other conflicts in which these countries have been drawn until recently are no longer generated by the colonial past, but by internal or international contradictions associated with their independent, sovereign existence.

Traditional societies of the East and problems of modernization. The development of the modern world community takes place in the spirit of globalization: a world market, a single information space have developed, there are international and supranational political, economic, financial institutions and ideologies. The peoples of the East are actively participating in this process. The former colonial and dependent countries gained relative independence, but became the second and dependent component in the "multipolar world - periphery" system. This was determined by the fact that the modernization of Eastern society (the transition from traditional to modern society) in the colonial and post-colonial period took place under the auspices of the West.

The Western powers are still striving under the new conditions to maintain and even expand their positions in the countries of the East, to tie them to themselves with economic,

political, financial and other ties, enmeshed in a network of agreements on technical, military, cultural and other cooperation. If this does not help or does not work, Western powers, especially the United States, do not hesitate to resort to violence, armed intervention, economic blockade and other means of pressure in the spirit of traditional colonialism (as in the case of Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries).

However, in the future, under the influence of changes in the development of the economy, scientific and technological progress, it is possible to move world centers - economic, financial, military-political. Then, perhaps, the end of the Euro-American orientation of the evolution of world civilization will come, and the eastern factor will become the guiding factor of the world cultural basis. But for now, the West remains the dominant feature of the emerging world civilization. Its strength rests on the continued superiority of production, science, technology, the military sphere, and the organization of economic life.

The countries of the East, despite the differences between them, are mostly connected by an essential unity. They are united, in particular, by the colonial and semi-colonial past, as well as their peripheral position in the world economic system. They are also united by the fact that, compared with the pace of intensive perception of the achievements of scientific and technological progress, material production, the rapprochement of the East with the West in the sphere of culture, religion, and spiritual life is relatively slow. And this is natural, because the mentality of the people, their traditions do not change overnight. In other words, with all the national differences, the countries of the East are still related by the presence of a certain set of values ​​of material, intellectual and spiritual being.

Throughout the East, modernization has common features, although each society modernized in its own way and got its own result. But at the same time, the Western level of material production and scientific knowledge remains for the East a criterion of modern development. In various eastern countries, both Western models of a market economy and socialist plans were tested.

new, on the model of the USSR. The ideology and philosophy of traditional societies experienced corresponding influences. Moreover, the “modern” not only coexists with the “traditional”, forms synthesized, mixed forms with it, but also opposes it.

One of the features of public consciousness in the East is the powerful influence of religions, religious and philosophical doctrines, traditions as an expression of social inertia. The development of modern views occurs in the confrontation between the traditional, past-facing pattern of life and thought, on the one hand, and the modern, future-oriented, marked by scientific rationalism, on the other.

The history of the modern East testifies to the fact that traditions can act both as a mechanism that contributes to the perception of elements of modernity, and as a brake blocking transformations.

The ruling elite of the East in socio-political terms is divided, respectively, into "modernizers" and "protectors".

"Modernizers" are trying to reconcile science and religious faith, social ideals and moral and ethical prescriptions of religious doctrines with reality through the consecration of scientific knowledge with sacred texts and canons. "Modernizers" often call for overcoming the antagonism between religions and admit the possibility of their cooperation. A classic example of countries that have managed to adapt traditions with modernity, material values ​​and institutions of Western civilization are the Confucian states of the Far East and Southeast Asia (Japan, "new industrialized countries", China).

On the contrary, the task of the fundamentalist “guardians” is to rethink reality, modern socio-cultural and political structures in the spirit of sacred texts (for example, the Koran). Their apologists argue that religions should not adapt to the modern world with its vices, but society should be built in such a way as to comply with basic religious principles. Fundamentalists-"protectors" are characterized by intolerance and "search for enemies". To a large extent, the success of the radical fundamental

Listist movements are explained by the fact that they point people to their specific enemy (the West), the "culprit" of all his troubles. Fundamentalism has become widespread in a number of modern Islamic countries - Iran, Libya, etc. Islamic fundamentalism is not just a return to the purity of genuine, ancient Islam, but also a demand for the unity of all Muslims as a response to the challenge of modernity. Thus, a claim is put forward to create a powerful conservative political potential. Fundamentalism in its extreme forms is about uniting all the faithful in their resolute struggle against the changed world, for a return to the norms of real Islam, cleansed of later accretions and distortions.

Japanese economic miracle. Japan emerged from the Second World War with a ruined economy, oppressed in the political sphere - its territory was occupied by US troops. The period of occupation ended in 1952, during this time, with the filing and with the assistance of the American administration, transformations were carried out in Japan, designed to direct it to the path of development of the countries of the West. A democratic constitution, the rights and freedoms of citizens were introduced in the country, and a new system of government was actively formed. Such a traditional Japanese institution as the monarchy was preserved only symbolically.

By 1955, with the advent of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which was at the helm of power for the next few decades, the political situation in the country finally stabilized. At this time, the first change in the economic orientation of the country took place, which consisted in the predominant development of the industry of group "A" (heavy industry). Mechanical engineering, shipbuilding, metallurgy are becoming key sectors of the economy

Due to a number of factors, in the second half of the 1950s and early 1970s, Japan demonstrated unprecedented growth rates, overtaking all countries of the capitalist world in a number of indicators. The gross national product (GNP) of the country increased by 10 - 12% per year. Being a very scarce country in terms of raw materials, Japan was able to develop and effectively use energy-intensive and

labor-intensive technologies of heavy industry. Working for the most part on imported raw materials, the country was able to break into world markets and achieve high profitability of the economy. In 1950, national wealth was estimated at 10 billion dollars, in 1965 it was already at 100 billion dollars, in 1970 this figure reached 200 billion, in 1980 the threshold of 1 trillion was crossed.

It was in the 60s that such a thing as the "Japanese economic miracle" appeared. At a time when 10% was considered high, Japan's industrial production increased by 15% per year. Japan has twice surpassed the countries of Western Europe in this regard and 2.5 times the USA.

In the second half of the 1970s there was a second shift in priorities within the framework of economic development, which was associated primarily with the oil crisis of 1973-1974 and a sharp rise in the price of oil, the main energy carrier. The rise in oil prices most acutely affected the basic sectors of the Japanese economy: mechanical engineering, metallurgy, shipbuilding, and petrochemistry. Initially, Japan was forced to significantly reduce the import of oil, in every possible way to save on domestic needs, but this was clearly not enough. The crisis of the economy, its energy-intensive industries, was exacerbated by the country's traditional lack of land resources and environmental problems. In this situation, the Japanese put at the forefront the development of energy-saving and science-intensive technologies: electronics, precision engineering, communications. As a result, Japan reached a new level, entering the post-industrial information stage of development.

What made it possible for a country of many millions destroyed after the war, practically devoid of minerals, to achieve such success, relatively quickly become one of the world's leading economic powers and achieve a high level of well-being of citizens?

Of course, all this was to a large extent due to all the previous development of the country, which, unlike all other countries of the Far East, and indeed most of Asia, initially embarked on the path of the predominant development of private property relations in conditions of insignificant state pressure on society.

Very important was the previous experience of capitalist development, which followed the Meiji reforms. Thanks to them, an isolated island country with very specific cultural features was able to adapt to the new realities of world development, changes in social and economic life.

A good impetus was given by the reforms of the period of occupation after the Second World War. Having finally put the country on the path of democratic development, they released the internal forces of Japanese society.

The defeat in the war, which hurt the national dignity of the Japanese, also stimulated their high economic activity.

Finally, the absence, due to the ban, of its own armed forces and the cost of them, American industrial orders, and a favorable political environment also played an important role in the formation of the "Japanese miracle".

The combined influence of all these factors gave rise to the phenomenon known as the "Japanese economic miracle", which reflected the nature of the development of Japanese society in the second half of the 20th century.

Islamic revolution in Iran. Revolutionary events of the late 70s of the XX century. in Iran were brought to life by the socio-economic and political reforms carried out by Shah Mohammed Pahlavi and his entourage in the previous period. These transformations were aimed at the elimination of semi-feudal relations in the country, the accelerated modernization of Iran and its integration. in the modern capitalist world (the so-called "white revolution").

Of the 19 reforms, the most important was the agrarian one, aimed at transferring land to tenant peasants. This encouraged the creation of commodity farms. At the same time, many families of landowners were unable to adapt to the new conditions. and rushed to the city, replenishing the ranks of unskilled workers, the unemployed, lumpen.

In addition to the agrarian reform, industry is also being modernized. Receipts from the sale of oil have increased significantly, new branches of light and heavy

loy industry. Despite the fact that the reforms helped the country overcome its socio-economic backwardness, the development of the economy was not organic and uniform. Some industries developed rapidly, while others stagnated. At all levels, there were such harmful phenomena as wastefulness, mismanagement, corruption, greed, which largely blocked the positive aspects of the reforms.

The Shah's main mistake was his reliance solely on force, as well as the obvious disregard for the interests of the Islamic clergy, who were infringed by the reforms. The authority of the clergy was significantly undermined as a result of attempts to modernize and secularize the country, the introduction of Western culture. The clergy was able to attract to the struggle broad sections of the population, tired of adapting to the rapid capitalist modernization of the country. The mass base of the revolution was the middle urban strata, impoverished peasants and niches.

At the head of the revolution stood Ayatollah (the holder of the highest religious title) Khomeini, who managed to bring it to a victorious end. In the context of an unprecedented rise in the revolutionary activity of the people, the question of power was actually resolved already at the beginning of 1979. The Shah left the people, a referendum was held in the country, which resulted in the proclamation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In December of the same year, the country's constitution was adopted, which specifically stipulated that the supreme power in the country belongs to the clergy in the person of Khomeini (after his death, to his successor), and civil political power is exercised by the president, parliament (mejlis) and the prime minister.

The internal political life of the country after the revolution is characterized by the dominance of the clergy, which was able to form the largest faction in parliament, concentrate executive power, education, punitive bodies, and crack down on the opposition. Islamic ethics is being implanted in Iran, the thesis is put forward about the Koran as the constitution of all mankind.

Foreign policy is characterized by a clear anti-Western orientation. The new government terminated a number of civil and military contracts with the United States and other countries, liquidating

supervised American military bases, banks and companies. The formula "Neither the West, nor the East, but Islam" was declared the main foreign policy principle. Iran up to the present time considers it its duty to carry out the "export" of the Islamic revolution, supports radical fundamentalist movements in many countries.

Thus, the Islamic revolution in Iran was inextricably linked with the failure of the reforms, which the Shah, his entourage and American advisers did not take into account either the people or their traditions and customs, rooted in thousands of years of history. But it was the people who had to pay for the reforms, which brought mad enrichment to a handful of rich people (in particular, from the sale of oil), speculators, officials and impoverishment, ruin of the working people, the peasantry, and small entrepreneurs. Such negative phenomena of Western culture as crime, alcoholism, drug addiction, and prostitution flourished in the country. Thousands of international rogues and adventurers rushed to the "Iranian pie". Overseas, primarily American, began to displace its Iranian. The general decline in morality and morality completed the picture. In this situation, a social explosion was inevitable, and the clergy only skillfully took advantage of it.