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Statelessness and Contested Sovereignty in the Middle University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--History History 2021 STATELESSNESS AND CONTESTED SOVEREIGNTY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE UNITED STATES, PALESTINIAN REFUGEES, THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, SYRIAN ETHNIC MINORITIES, AND THE EARLY COLD WAR, 1945 – 1954 John Perry University of Kentucky, [email protected] Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2021.195 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Perry, John, "STATELESSNESS AND CONTESTED SOVEREIGNTY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE UNITED STATES, PALESTINIAN REFUGEES, THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, SYRIAN ETHNIC MINORITIES, AND THE EARLY COLD WAR, 1945 – 1954" (2021). Theses and Dissertations--History. 70. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/history_etds/70 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the History at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--History by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. John Perry, Student Dr. Tracy Campbell, Major Professor Dr. Amy Murrell Taylor, Director of Graduate Studies STATELESSNESS AND CONTESTED SOVEREIGNTY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE UNITED STATES, PALESTINIAN REFUGEES, THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, SYRIAN ETHNIC MINORITIES, AND THE EARLY COLD WAR, 1945 – 1954 ________________________________________ DISSERTATION ________________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partiaL fulfiLLment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhiLosophy in the ColLege of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By John Perry Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Tracy CampbeLL, Professor of History Lexington, Kentucky 2021 Copyright © John Perry 2021 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION STATELESSNESS AND CONTESTED SOVEREIGNTY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE UNITED STATES, PALESTINIAN REFUGEES, THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, SYRIAN ETHNIC MINORITIES, AND THE EARLY COLD WAR, 1945 – 1954 This dissertation examines the significance of America’s interactions with stateless actors. It argues that it was groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Palestine’s refugees, and ethnic minorities, not the U.S. and Soviet governments, nor the state governments of the region, which dictated how the Cold War unfolded in the Middle East. These groups transformed the policy decisions, strategies, and alliances of both native regimes and the superpowers. Traditionally, historians have looked at the global politics of the Cold War through the lens of state-to-state relations. How have state governments interacted with each other and how did this influence the strategies and alliances of the superpowers? However, this work challenges state-centric models and points to new factors in the history of the United States and the world. Furthermore, much of the literature on groups such as Palestinian refugees and ethnic minorities has characterized them as victims, or actors without agency. Far from victims, this study contends that the Muslim Brotherhood, Palestine’s refugees, and minority groups such as the Armenians and Kurds defined the history of the period and, in key ways, were the primary agents of change. Not only does such research demonstrate the significance of non-state actors with regards to the Cold War, it also highlights the limits of postcolonialism. The non-state groups of this study did not fit into the nation-state system that developed in the Middle East after World War II. While these actors fit within imperial modes of power, the transition from Empire to nation-state left them stateless. As a result, they contested the nation-state system that came into being in the Middle East in the late 1940s and 1950s. KEYWORDS: United States and the World, Global Cold War, Postcolonialism, Palestinian Refugees, the Muslim Brotherhood, Syria’s Armenians and Kurds John Perry (Name of Student) 04/26/2021 Date STATELESSNESS AND CONTESTED SOVEREIGNTY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE UNITED STATES, PALESTINIAN REFUGEES, THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, SYRIAN ETHNIC MINORITIES, AND THE EARLY COLD WAR, 1945 - 1954 By John Perry Tracy Campbell Director of Dissertation Amy Murell Taylor Director of Graduate Studies 04/26/2021 Date TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION……….………………………………………………..1 PROLOGUE. MODERNITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND SOUTH ASIA……..….23 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………...23 Islamic Anti-Colonial Nationalism in the 19th Century ……………...………...…….25 The United States and Anti-Colonial Nationalism……………………………...……27 CHAPTER 2. FROM CRITICAL TO CATASTROPHIC: PALESTINIAN REFUGEES AND THE EARLY COLD WAR, 1945 – 1952…………………………………………30 2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..30 2.2 Warning Signs, 1945 – 1948………..……….………………………………....35 2.3 Palestinian Refugees, 1948 – 1952…….……………………………….………56 2.4 Conclusion……………….…………………………………….……………….80 CHAPTER 3. THE THREAT FROM WITHIN: THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AND THE EGYPTIAN STATE……………………………………..…………..……....83 3.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………….83 3.2 Post-WWII EGYPT……………………….………………………….………...87 3.3 The Muslim Brotherhood, Nasser, and the United States, 1950 – 1954…...…101 3.4 Conclusion……………………………….………………………….………...126 CHAPTER 4. THE MOST DANGEROUS COUNTRY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: SYRIA, ETHNIC MINORITIES, AND ANTI-COLONIAL NATIONALISM……….129 4.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………129 4.2 Decolonizing Syria………………………….…………………...……………132 iii 4.3 Trouble on the Horizon……………………………….………………….……141 4.4 Regime Change………………….…………………………………………….156 4.5 Democracy and Disorder………….…………………………………….…….167 4.6 Dictatorship and Direction…………….……………………………………...175 4.7 Conclusion……………………….……………………………….…………...185 CHAPTER 5. EPILOGUE: POSTCOLONIALISM AND THE LONG ROAD TO 9/11..…………………………………………………………………………………....188 5.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….188 5.2 U.S. Hegemony and Postcolonialism in the Middle East……...……….….….193 5.3 The Soviet-Afghan War………………………………….……………….…...199 5.4 Conclusion………………………………………………………..…………...205 CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSION………………………...………………..……………..209 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………214 VITA……………………………………………………………………………………227 iv CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION Palestinian refugees, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Syria’s Armenian and Kurdish populations transformed the Cold War in the Middle East. These stateless actors defined, and then often redefined, the policies, aims, and alliances of both the superpowers and the regional governments of the Middle East. Traditionally, the historiography on the Cold War has focused on state-to-state relations.1 However, this dissertation challenges such work by arguing that non-state actors were primary agents of change. Palestinian refugees, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Syria’s ethnic minorities confounded the strategies of U.S. policymakers and forced them to reassess America’s Cold War in the Middle East. Palestinian refugees, more than any other group, defined the regional context U.S. strategy operated in. In 1948, the partition of Palestine went into effect and refugees poured into neighboring countries. The United States was considered having the most responsibility for the refugee crisis to local and regional populaces. Therefore, it became extremely difficult for Arab nations to publicly work with the U.S. government. If Arab governments had dealings with Washington, or even were perceived to, they risked significant civil conflict erupting within their borders. Similarly, the Muslim 1 John Lewis Gaddis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941 – 1947, Columbia University Press, 1972; Peter L Hahn, The United States, Great Britain, & Egypt, 1945 – 1956, The University of North Carolina Press, 1991; Melvyn P Leffler, A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration, and the Cold War, Stanford University Press, 1992; Salim Yaqub, Containing Arab Nationalism: The Eisenhower Doctrine and the Middle East, The University of North Carolina Press, 2004. 1 Brotherhood defined U.S./Egyptian relations. By the mid-1940s, the Muslim Brotherhood had
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