Foundation of Middle East Conflict: ‘A Peace to End All Peace’

If the “Great Powers” after the First World War had sought to create conflict in the Middle East that would last more than a century, they couldn’t have done a better job than they did.

To understand the current Middle East conflict, it’s essential to understand the origins of Western intervention in the region during World War I.

In Context Report: “Britain and France conducted secret negotiations to carve up the Middle East into new nation-states under their control. The resulting Sykes-Picot treaty suppressed Arab self-determination and inaugurated a century of Western intervention in the region with the United States later taking over the leading role. Our guest is Professor David Fromkin, the author of "A Peace to End All Peace, The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East.

In “A Peace to End All Peace,” historian Fromkin (1932-2017), a professor at Boston University, showed how contemporary hostilities between Arabs and Israelis stem