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THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION AND ITS IMPACT ON

ARAB WORLD

Dr. Walid Al Shunnaq

Assistant Professor

Princess Alia University College

Al Balqa Applied University

Jordan

Abstract

This paper focus on collapse of the Soviet Union and its impact on Arab World. It also

contains literature review related to collapse of the Soviet Union. Conclusion are also

drawn on the basis of literature.

Keywords: Collapse ; Soviet Union ; Impact ; Arab World

Introduction

The effects of the fall down of the USSR were felt throughout the world in many

aspects of peoples day to day life but it also impacted extremely upon Western countries

foreign policies in ways such as; security spending in key countries such as the USA went

down in certain areas, the power vacuum left America as efficiently the police of the

world and also because a huge threat had been erased, many countries warmed up to

former enemies.

The collapse of the Soviet Union showed the weaknesses in socialism and how it is

essentially flawed as its principles go against human nature. This weakness in the

communist leading system made the rest of the world identify the same weaknesses

applied to China and made the Chinese seem less impressive. This feeling of dominance

felt by the West (mainly in America) can be seen through the unexpected drop in tensions

between the west and China and how the west's approach to China became designate less

hard-line and almost accepted them as friends. Trade was initiated and the successes of

such can be seen even today and this allowance by both the western governments and the

Chinese government to allow each other's products to enter their country even with the

risk of spreading different ideological views shows just how small they thought the risk

imposed by China was. This massive shift in world opinion and so inevitably in

democracies, government foreign policies shows the intercontinental impact of the

collapse of the USSR.

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Over all, the change in foreign policy for western countries, especially America was

huge. The collapse of the USSR was probably the biggest event in the second half of the

20th century and political change from it was inevitable. Its impact on western countries

foreign policy therefore should not be underestimated as its affects are still seen today in

places such as Iraq, as the Americans want to limit Nuclear weapons to reduce world

tension. The after-effects of such a catastrophic change in the world political climate is

sure to be felt for decades to come as it left, in my opinion, only one real super power.

(Alex, Yi. 2007)

Arab Spring

With the events of the Arab Spring, now is a good time to take stock of some lessons

learned from 20 years of efforts to bring better human rights protections to former Soviet

Union countries. Were our assumptions faulty? What could be done better, or differently,

to promote human rights during tectonic societal shifts? Does the exercise have relevance

beyond the region, particularly given the upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa?

The differences between 1991 and the 2011 Arab uprisings are vast, of course. But my

20 years at Human Rights Watch have given me a few ideas about what has to happen

after the revolution to make change stick.(Denber, R. 2012)

The only thing the Arab Spring and the end of the USSR have in common is that they

happened to involve large crowds," said Boris Kagarlitsky, a sociologist and former

Soviet dissident who was involved in the anti-Soviet protests. "It's like comparing a

political rally with a football match, or the French Revolution with a rock festival - not

particularly productive."

While the Arab uprisings are a genuinely popular movement, the revolution in the USSR

was carried out by the elites themselves, said Kagarlitsky. What is more, most of the mass

participation had ended well before the August coup. "Despite the collapse of the ruling

Communist party, no real revolution occurred in Russia in 1991," noted historian Stephen

Cohen in a 1993 article for The Nation. The following year, only seven per cent of

Russian respondents told a Levada poll that the fall of the USSR was a victory of

democracy, with 53 per cent seeing it as "simply the outcome of a battle for power within

the country's leadership". (Nikitin, V. 2011)

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Peace Process in Arab World

Two events of cosmic significance enabled America to revive what had

euphemistically come to be called the Middle East peace process: the end of the Cold

War and the end of the hot war in the Gulf. The collapse of the Soviet Union as a

superpower orphaned Moscow's former military clients - Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and

the radical Palestinian factions - and pulled the rug from underneath the Arab rejection

front that always opposed any peace settlement with Israel. Without Soviet arms supplies

and diplomatic backing, there was little the Arab radicals could do except sulk in their

tents. The collapse of the Soviet empire also meant that America no longer had to

contend with a credible rival in the Middle East. Soviet-American competition was

replaced by Soviet-American cooperation, with America as the dominant power and the

Soviet Union reduced almost to the level of an assistant. Once the Cold War ended, the

Middle East naturally ceased to be an arena for waging the Cold War. The ending of the

global contest between the two principal protagonists thus, made possible, or at least

conceivable, the ending of the conflict between the Arabs and the Israelis.

The Gulf War showed the extent to which the ground rules had changed following the

end of the Cold War. The scenario that actually unfolded following Iraq's invasion of

Kuwait would have been utterly inconceivable under conditions of intense Soviet-

American competitiveness. Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War re-cast inter-Arab relations,

dealing a further blow to the rejection front. Syria, once the standard-bearer of Arab

rejectionist's and Moscow's closest Arab ally, joined in the American-led coalition against

Iraq. The moderate, pro-American Saudi-Egyptian axis became more powerful within the

Arab world and more assertive in pushing for a strong American role. For all the Arab

members, the hastily assembled alliance with America against the Iraqi dictator now held

longer-term attractions. The war-time alliance laid the foundations for a peace-time

alliance. Having followed America's lead in war, the Arabs were more willing than ever

before to follow her lead in peace? (Shlaim, A.1992)

The Islamic nations of the world had considerable exposure during the Cold War to

Soviet revolutionary warfare doctrine, which was standard curriculum material for any

students sent to Soviet and other Warsaw Pact nation universities to gain free

undergraduate and postgraduate education. Suffice to say, classics like Lenin's

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Gosudarstvo i Revolutsia (The State and the Revolution) were compulsory reading. To

this pool of sociopathic knowledge infused across Islamic nations must also be added the

extensive training in insurgency techniques provided by US and UK special forces and

intelligence instructors during the 1980s Afghan war of liberation against the Soviets.

Therefore the technique of destabilising governments and political institutions by

sustained insurgency is well understood across the Islamic world, and considerable study

material especially of Soviet origin remains available.

The connections between Nazism and Arab fascism were further reinforced as some

Nazi war criminals sought refuge after the war. The best documented instance is that of

SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Alois Brunner, former commandant of the Drancy concentration

camp in Paris, who eventually settled in Syria during the 1950s. There are claims that in

total several hundred former SS and Gestapo officers eventually found new homes in the

Arab world, these including Gestapo officer Joachim Däumling, SS Ober-Gruppenfuhrer

Oskar Dirlewanger, SS Gruppenfuhrer Leopold Gleim, and SS Ober-Gruppenfuhrer

Heinrich Selimann.

Given the volume of publications which currently exist, connecting modern Islamo-

fascism to the NSDAP regime of the 1930s, and the well documented activities of al

Husseini in Nazi occupied Europe, the evidence that modern Islamo-fascism has its

primary ideological and doctrinal roots in twentieth century Nazism is overwhelming.

Apologists for Islamo-fascism and 'political Islam' will no doubt dismiss this material as

'Zionist propaganda', but whether we are prepared to accept or reject such historical

claims, the nearly identical ideological and doctrinal models used by the Nazis and

modern Islamofascists cannot be explained away so easily. Nor is the adoption of Nazi

symbology such as the straight arm salute used by Hezbollah, or the wide distribution by

Islamo-fascists of anti-semitic tracts such as the “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, a

favourite of Goebbels' propagandists. There are simply too many threads connecting the

two ideologies to be dismissed easily.

World War Two may well be sixty years behind us, but it is clear that the poison which

almost destroyed the world's democracies then is still alive and well

today.(Kopp,C.,2007)

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Conclusion

When the Soviet Union Collapsed, the huge power vacuum created around the world

was mainly filled by the heads of states seizing power of their own country, this was

encouraged by the USA who had not officially changed their stance on this matter since

President Woodrow Wilson's fourteen points outlined a countries right to govern itself.

This approach to the management of world order greatly lessened the burden on America

who had effectively become the world Police. Although it did leave many separatist

groups in certain countries eager for Independence, it also paved the way for peace in key

areas around the world such as the Middle East. During the Cold War, the USSR had

backed the Arab nations and supplied them with arms to fight Israel who were being

backed by the USA. When the USSR collapsed the Arab nations became much less

aggressive in their stance against Israel as they realized that America would not let them

destroy Israel. This loss in confidence by the Arab nations can be seen through such

events as the signing of peace treaties between Israel and Egypt as well as the reduction in

state sponsored anti-Semitic terrorism. This shows a new era of peace

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References

(Alex, Y. (2007). The global significance and worldwide effects of the collapse of the

USSR. http://www.helium.com/items/695620-the-global-significance-and-worldwide-

effects-of-the-collapse-of-the-ussr. Retrieved on April 12, 2012

Denber,R. (2012) The Soviet Fall and the Arab Spring. World Policy Institute, January 10,

2012.

Shlaim, A. (1992) When Bush Comes to Shove: America and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process.

The Oxford International Review, 3:2, 1992, 2-6.

Kopp, C., (2007) Hitler's Legacy, Modern Islamo-fascism and its Nazi Origins.First

published in Defence Today, Vol.6 No.1

April/May 2007 Text, Line Art © 2007, 2008 Carlo Kopp)

Nikitin, V,.(2011) (Did the Russians write the script for the Arab Spring?

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/did-the-russians-write-the-script-for-

the-arab-spring#page1.

Retrieved on April 2012