ARI Projects Arab Securitocracies and Security Sector Reform
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ARI Projects Arab Securitocracies and Security Sector Reform April 2012 British Colonial Policies in the Arab Region: Sowing the Seeds of Contemporary Middle Eastern Security Sectors? Jessica Watkins* Arab security sectors across the Middle East today appear to share a number of generally negative characteristics, including the use of coercion and of the military to control internal dissent, the exclusion of particular ethnic or religious groups from the highest ranks of the security services, allegiance to the state as opposed to the citizen, and pervasive corruption in the judicial and policing systems. These common characteristics are frequently attributed to the role played by the colonial powers during their formation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This chapter explores some of the strategies pursued by the British in four of its Arab territories: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Oman and assesses their effects and long term influences. In the late nineteenth and first half of the War, parts of the crumbling Ottoman Empire twentieth centuries, Britain was responsible acquired a new significance on account of for creating or reforming a number of security their geo-strategic positions or resources. sectors within its colonies, protectorates and After 1919, commercial interests in the region mandates. Britain’s ambitions for the military, were renewed by the promise of oil. At the police and intelligence services in its various same time, the newly formed League of territories were diverse, depending on its Nations began to outline the rights and regional strategic goals, financial responsibilities of nation states, obligating considerations, and the pre-existing socio- Britain to prepare the security forces of its political context of each country. In the Arab mandated territories for eventual self rule. region, the prevailing rationale behind British Nevertheless, despite the decline of the rule or military occupation in the nineteenth Empire, the granting of independence to Arab century was to safeguard maritime access to states, and the growing influence of new India. Subsequently, during the First World powers in the region, Britain continued to * Jessica Watkins is a PhD candidate at the War Studies Department, King's College London, researching state policing and societal dispute resolution in Jordan. 2 promote its own military agenda across the British involvement in the subsequent Middle East during the Second World War development of those services. and beyond. This had long-term effects on the development of the armed forces and SECTION ONE: CONTEXTUALIZING intelligence services in its former territories. BRITISH INVOLVEMENT This paper is divided into three sections: the first introducing Britain’s role and objectives Britain’s interests in developing the security in the development of the security services in sectors in her Arab territories were linked to each country, the second looking in greater the nature of her control over each. Table No. detail at the strategies it used to achieve those 1 below summarises Britain’s relationships aims, and the third considering the legacy of with each of the four territories: Table No. 1: Britain and Armed Forces in Four Arab Countries Type of British Created or Developed Country Period of British control Dominion Modern Armed Forces 1882-1914 (Egypt remained formally under Ottoman ‘Veiled’ Protectorate suzerainty) Developed Egypt 1914-1922 (strong British Protectorate influence remained until 1952) 1921 -1932 (strong influence Iraq Mandate Created remained until 1958) 1920 -1946 (and influence Jordan Mandate Created remains) Officially none – part of 1891-1970 (and influence Oman Created informal Empire remains) None of these countries were ever British short-lived expedition in 1798 failed to colonies per se, and the mandates in Iraq and achieve colonial ambitions, but severely Jordan were established in a climate of weakened the ruling Mamluk power base and decolonisation, with the expectation that they created a vacuum filled by Muhammad ‘Ali in would become self-governing within a given 1805. The French retained significant cultural period. influence and economic ties in Egypt after their military withdrawal, and in the 1820s 1. Egypt Muhammad ‘Ali employed a number of a. Background: Britain was not the first French veteran officers of the Napoleonic European power to exercise military control wars in his military academies. In 1825 an over modern Egypt. Napoleon Bonaparte’s official French military mission was 3 introduced [McGregor 2006: 79]. Ottoman Empire. Egypt remained After the British military takeover in 1882, strategically important during World War the British operated a ‘veiled protectorate Two and from 1940-1942 British forces system’ whereby its administrators occupied repelled Axis Powers offensives on Egypt. key positions in the Egyptian government. At During the war, Britain periodically employed the beginning of World War One, Britain the Egyptian Air Force alongside the RAF, declared a full protectorate over Egypt and made occasional use of the Egyptian replacing the anti-British khedive with his Army [McGregor 2006: 232]. uncle. Egypt gained independence in 1922 c. Britain’s Role in the Security Services: after mass popular uprisings orchestrated by Nineteenth century Egypt differed markedly the nationalist Wafd delegation. Nonetheless, in terms of socio-economic and military Britain maintained control of the Suez and development from other Ottoman Arab strongly influenced governance until 1952. In provinces that subsequently came under July 1952, King Farouk was deposed and the British control. The Egypt that British forces Free Officers movement took over. Gamal took over was an Ottoman province in little ‘Abd al-Nasser subsequently emerged as ruler more than name and had been autonomously of the new republic. Britain was forced to ruled for centuries by successive Mamluk withdraw from the Suez in 1956. dynasties and then the Albanian commander b. British Objectives: Over the seventy year Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha, under whom a huge 1882 - 1956 period, British objectives in modern army had been created and new Egypt shifted. The initial stimulus for legislation and policing systems developed. intervention was a military takeover staged by Britain was therefore presented with an an Arab-Egyptian Colonel Ahmed ‘Urabi, already developed security infrastructure in designed to wrest power from the Turco- Egypt, although during its occupation it did Circassian khedive. Britain moved to protect introduce reforms to the organisation of the her privileged rights to the Suez Canal, which army and police and in 1886 created a new provided access to India. A second area of police intelligence service, the Special interest was Egypt’s cotton production, which Division in Cairo [Tollefson 1957: 38]. by 1914 made up 92% of Egyptian exports. [Mitchell 1988: 16]. Territorially, Egypt 2. Iraq became important in its own right during a. Background: Iraq – formerly Mesopotamia World War One. Again, the Suez was vital as – came gradually under British military a transportation hub, and the Allies used control during World War One as British Egypt as a staging post for attacking the forces wrested power from the Ottoman army. 4 It was declared a British mandate by the peace and security as cheaply as possible League of Nations at the 1919 Paris Peace [Sluglett 2007: 182]. Britain also had at least Conference, frustrating the aspirations of a nominal duty to prepare Iraq for self- Arabs who had supported Britain in the Arab government, in accordance with one of Revolt in the hope of winning independence. Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and the Iraq’s borders took little account of ethnic establishment of Iraq’s armed forces was a cohesion. Faced with an immediate anti- central aspect of the nation-building process. colonial revolt by predominantly Kurdish and c. Britain’s Role in the Security Services: Shi’ite regions, Britain offered Faisal bin al- When British forces first entered Basra in Hussain the throne of Iraq in 1921 after his 1914 they found the Turkish Ottoman police expulsion by the French from Damascus. Iraq gone and deployed British and Indian military gained independence in 1932, but Britain police patrols. When they reached Baghdad retained control over many areas of Iraqi they recruited local headmen to police smaller defence by means of a 1930 bilateral treaty. In towns, and irregular district police for 1941, four anti-British army generals allied patrolling the outlying areas. In addition to with the Axis powers briefly took over the the Iraqi Army, created in 1921, and the Iraqi government, but were overthrown by Royal Air Force detachment that Britain British Forces who subsequently imposed dedicated to Iraq’s defence, Britain had martial law, internment without trial, press frequent recourse to a predominantly Assyrian censorship and a ban on political parties. force known as the Iraq Levies. Britain’s Following World War Two British influence ambition for the Iraqi army to retain a purely in the region steadily diminished. An attempt internal role sparked ongoing friction between in 1948 to renegotiate British involvement in British and Iraqi administrators and British Iraq amid growing public hostility towards fears relating to the emergence of an overly- Britain was repudiated. Finally, in 1958, the powerful military elite were realized when a Hashemite Monarchy was overthrown in a military coup d’état toppled the Hashemite