Middle East
MIDDLE EAST
A standard Western term for the area of West Asia and North Africa. The definition is elastic, depending on who is speaking, for what purpose, and whether the context is primarily geographical, political, or cultural. It usually includes the area from Turkey to Yemen, and from Iraq to Egypt. It may also include Iran, the states of North Africa to Morocco, and sometimes Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti. "Middle East," "Near East," and "Far East" are not neutral geographical terms, like "West Asia" or "East Asia." They are historical constructions that reflect the worldview and political dominance of those who created it in the course of "discovering" and studying the world, which after all is a globe with no central point on its surface. For the Middle East to be "east," there has to be a (conceptual) center, and that point is Western Europe/North America. The more common term was formerly "Near East" (as distinct from "Far East"), obviously in relation to Europe. The term "Middle East" arose in the United States around the turn of the twentieth century and is now, reflecting the balance of power, the dominant one in the (so-called) West.