Amid Iran Conflict, Debate Grows Over ‘Middle East’ vs ‘West Asia’

Over the years, the world witnessed the first and the second Gulf Wars waged in Iraq by the United States. So, most of the time, Americans have been beginning to call these nations (not only Iraq but also the other nations present in that region), the Middle East. And ever since then, the term Middle East reminds us of the Gulf nations such as Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and whatnot?

But the true geographical implication behind terming these nations as "Middle-east ', is factually correct? And who, even in their wildest of imaginations, has thought to term these places as the Middle East?

Amid the escalating US-Iran war, discussions are abound whether to call the geographical region where Iran is situated be called Middle East or West Asia.

Around 1850, when India was still under the rule of Britain. is when the term ‘Middle is term had originated, as the officials of the then British India had described the regions situated between the Arabian Peninsula and India as the Middle East with the Persian Gulf at its centre.

The Gulf region, with nations including Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman were administered informally by the British back then, and these regions were managed by the Delhi administrative office of the British rather than from London. However, the British did not directly colonise these nations but gained strategic control through their 'treaty policy', where the rulers often provided shelter for the British imperial army and also maintained them, and in case of any foreign exchange, they surrendered their powers to the British, all in all for the sake of protection. This is how the British indirectly ruled these Gulf nations for over 150 years.

Even though the term Middle East originated in this manner, it was actually popularised by an American naval officer named Alfred Thayer Mahan, who mentioned the Gulf nations in his articles in 1902. Then came World War 1 and even Churchill advocated the term Middle East and allegedly even set up a Middle East department in 1921, thus institutionalising the word of defining these countries. In this way the term had propagated over the years across America and also Europe.

However, the recent conflict with Iran by Israel and us had brought a limelight over the term allegedly being used all over the Internet, and many have realized that even though this word is very eurocentric, it does not signify them in any sort when it comes to their actual geographical location.

Hence, the proper word to describe the Gulf nations, many opine, is West Asia. This is a very accurate yet neutral term used to denote nations such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Oman, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Jordan and also Israel, located in the southwestern part of the Asian continent.

Hence, many news outlets are starting to use the term 'West Asia' over the Middle East in order to provide a more neutral and geographically accurate term over the Eurocentric word which came into existence during the colonial era.

This article is written by Nag Adithya, a student from Loyola Academy, interning with Deccan Chronicle.