The United States killed Iran's pivotal general Sulemanni in a fixed -point removal method, and created another stir for the turbulent Middle East political situation.
The United States discusses the rationality of American actions from the past behavior of Sulemanni. The statement given is that Sulemanni is a supporter of terrorists and a threat to the security of the American people.And the United States is so aggressive because the Trump administration feels that Iran is threatening its geographical layout and geographical interests in the Middle East.In other words, the United States thinks about the Middle East with geopolitical thinking.
But in Iran, they pay more attention to Suleimani's identity.Suleimani is the commander of the Shengcheng Brigade of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The love obtained in Iran is almost the second only to the spiritual leader Hamenei. It has a huge appeal in the Shiite in the entire Middle East.He is even considered to be the President of Iran in the future.Such an important person was killed, and the stimulus to Iran was quite great.We should also note that the major difference between Iran and the Middle East policy is that it also thinks about the Middle East issue with identity politics.
If we expand our fields of vision, we will find that most countries in the Middle East start to think about identity politics. The geopolitical layout is only an extension of identity politics.It can even be said that it is the transcendence of the status politics in the view of the Middle East, or the conflict between the identity politics and the geopolitics, which has caused so many problems.
After the end of World War II, the Middle East has increasingly divided the geographical dividing lines of various countries.However, there are many cases where countries or people in the Middle East are not recognized in geographical division. For example, they do not recognize each other between Palestine and Israel.Kuwait's entire country is not recognized.
Even though the Middle East countries have clearly realized that the random changes of the national borders of the sovereign state are basically unlikely in today's era, but they still think that the problem of thinking only from the scope of their territory is narrow. It should be from religion and sects.Think about the problem.Therefore, whether it is Iran in Shiites in Islamic or Islamic Saudi Arabia, they are actively conducting activities in other countries in other countries in the Middle East.When Suleimani was killed in Iraq, he was participating in the Iraqi Shiite armed operations supported by Iran.
If the problem is lost only with geopolitics and national income, the most important thing that should occur in the Middle East is the Balance of Power formed by European countries in the 19th century political competition.Some countries that are not in the core area of geographical competition may also adopt glorious isolation policies like Britain in history.However, under the perspective of identity, there is no possibility of so -called glorious isolation. If you want to put themselves outside, you are disagreed.
Similarly, under the perspective of identity and political perspective, the maximum competition and surpassing opponents are reasonable. The balance of balance is compromise.Therefore, we found that in recent years, especially in the autonomous competition of the Middle East countries in the Cold War era, it has become increasingly difficult to reconcile.And this irregularities are not only between the country, but also between the nations within the country.
There are sectarian conflicts within the Middle East countries such as Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon.These sectarian conflicts have given Iran, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the space of political wrestling within other countries. This has made international issues and domestic problems, sectarian issues, and interest issues.
The Trump administration seems to dare to kill Sulemanni, but this is more conducive to promoting Iran's rivals, and it is also likely that Shiite in other countries will be more sympathetic and supports Iran. After all, after all, after all,Mobilization based on identity is more effective and powerful during crisis than usual.Compared with the timeliness of geographical disputes and interests, the enthusiasm of the struggle stimulated by identity politics will also be more lasting.
Although Iran does have a huge gap with the United States in terms of military strength, if we consider the different thinking of identity and political thinking and material power -based comparison, then it is likely that the American attack on January 3, 2020 will become a change in the Middle East to change the Middle EastGreat events in historical processes.
(The author is a visiting scholar at the University of Rogers and Associate Professor of Jilin University)
