The Historical Context of “A Westphalia for the Middle East?”

Abstract

This article considers the fit of the “Westphalia for the Middle East” project with the historical Peace of Westphalia. It takes as its point of departure Proudhon’s distinction between the “judgment” and “reasons” of a treaty. The “reasons” behind the Peace of Westphalia include broad participation of interested parties, religious compromise, involvement of external powers in Imperial government, and ending a war. Of these, the involvement of external powers in another state’s government presents the greatest problem mapping to the Middle East, chiefly because the project proposes to treat the Middle East as a whole like the Holy Roman Empire in the Peace of Westphalia.