IPOL 322 Foreign Policies in Middle Eastern States

In my Foreign Policies in Middle Eastern States class, I was able to look at the different strategies certain states use to guide their domestic and foreign policies, where some prioritize building military power, other states may prioritize diversifying allies and having that promoted in the media. I also looked into the topic of foreign policy vs. domestic policy and how in some situations, the lines of foreign and domestic policies can be a blur. An interesting example of this is Libya. In 2011, there was an uprising that threatened the rule of the authoritarian leader, Moamar Gadhafi. This became a domestic problem, but once it was circulated in the media by anti government protesters, there were also blogs used to show the attacks on civilians to the world. This use of media makes a big difference in how foreign states implement policies and take action on other states. Western governments looked at the surplus of media attention on this issue and regarded it as not a civil war, but more of a humanitarian crisis that needed immediate international interference. This resulted in the making of foreign policies by Arab and Western states. Some Arab States launched air strikes and use of force to protect the civilians. In the middle of the same year in which the uprising started, the United States, Germany and other nation states delivered humanitarian aid for the civilians. Additionally, Italy and France took a step further and deployed military advisors for the rebels in the civil war. This example truly shows how the media makes a big difference in creating change and promoting taking action in politics. Even the first year after the crisis, the media began to expand, going from two Libyan satellite TV stations to more than 50 by the end of the Gadhafi rule. Newspapers rose from four specialized and daily newspapers, to dozens of varying publications. 

Works Cited:

Salah, H. (2015, November 16). War on the media. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved March 7, 2023, from https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/02/09/war-media/journalists-under-attack-libya