What Makes the Middle East Tick - Insights of a Diplomat

Introduction

The first suggestion to write such a book came from a psychologist who became aware of my experiences in very different regions of the world. This should actually be called ‘working in foreign cultures’. In response to my objection that such reports today could be described as ‘politically incorrect’, she said that the authenticity of one's own experience outweighed preconceived opinions or even ideologies. Nevertheless, I hesitated for a long time for the reason given.

However, after 2015, when a very large number of asylum seekers from the Middle East, northern Africa and other Muslim regions came to Europe, predominantly Germany, and a great deal of uncertainty emerged in local dealings with them, it seemed appropriate and useful to me to write about my experiences in their countries of origin. I hope to contribute to a better understanding of these people and to a better anticipation, assessment and understanding of their behaviours, and any associated problems arising in western societies.

I would like to begin by saying that for many years, as an employee of an international organization of the United Nations, I have worked intensively and passionately towards fostering understanding and cooperation among peoples and nations. Throughout my life I have not only debated and discussed daily with people from other countries and cultures, but also lived and worked with them. This is only possible if one respects and accepts the other and those who think differently, those whose experiences differ from one’s own experiences. In addition, both my own family and that of my daughter are international and intercultural. To this day I have friends and good acquaintances in almost all regions of the world, including the Arab region.

When I was still working for the German Commission for UNESCO in the 1990s, I devoted myself specifically to the topic of ‘living together in cultural diversity’. In view of several xenophobic attacks in Germany at that time, I set up special projects to help us better understand the phenomenon of cultural diversity, and to identify ways of consciously shaping it. In 1996 I initiated German-Israeli-Palestinian teacher-student seminars, which took place from 1997 onwards, and which earned high level recognition from all sides.

I was then a follower of a ‘multicultural’ vision of society and had almost boundless tolerance and the belief that the world at large and the life of every single person could be improved by such an approach. At the same time, I felt rather uncomfortable with the view, widespread in certain intellectual circles locally, that any foreigner must be preferred to any German. For me, this fundamentally contradicts the principle of equality of the dignity of all people(s); it is discriminatory and pure nonsense.

My transfer as an international official of UNESCO in Paris to a country in the Middle East, Jordan, in May 2003 became a turning point in my life. I was still surprised by a statement an Italian friend made to me shortly before my departure. It was only then that he informed me that he had also spent three years in the Middle East. When I asked him in amazement why he had never mentioned this in the years of our acquaintance, he said: ‘I developed a principle in this respect: to only talk about it with people who themselves have worked and lived in the region for a few years. My experience is that, at best, there is total incomprehension, but in many cases one is accused of racism as soon as one truthfully and authentically speaks of one’s experiences in this region to people in Europe who do not have firsthand experience of this part of the world’.

I found this difficult to understand, because I knew him from years of acquaintance, even friendship, as a cultivated, tolerant and cosmopolitan person. However, I remembered his words shortly after I arrived in Amman. There I managed the UNESCO office, which employed international staff originating from countries as diverse as Papua New Guinea and Belgium, but above all a large contingent of local staff, both Arab Muslims and Arab Christians, including Muslim and Christian Palestinians.

Despite my many years of experience in dealing with multicultural and multinational teams on international postings, I quickly realized that I had arrived in a completely new world, and that most of my previous experiences and important aspects of my beliefs were in some way worthless or needed to be questioned. I had been sent to Jordan without any cultural preparation, and now had to struggle to find out in daily practice how this world functioned and how to deal with it. This also included the realization that there are thought processes and behaviours which were completely outside of my own imagination and logic, the latter determined by my German and European roots.

In a painful process I often had to fight and act against my inner convictions. I had to realize that there is a logic and a way of thinking that is fundamentally different from the one in which I had grown up, worked and lived, and which I realised was essentially limited to the European region.

I have learned - albeit with great difficulty - to recognize many specifics in the thinking and behaviour of people and the societies in which they live, and to look behind the façade. In addition, I had many debates with experts of this region, hailing from all over the world. A young man from Russia, originally from its Islamic province Tatarstan stood out. He was fluent in Arabic, had many years of experience throughout the region and innumerable contacts on all levels of these societies. This man had even been consulted by U.S. officials, along with others, before the Iraq war, on the possible effects thereof. He had predicted exactly what would eventually happen.2

With the benefit of those insights, I was ultimately able to work very successfully in the Middle Eastern region - in terms of the demonstrable results of the office and the relations with my staff, governments and non-state actors in the entire region (notably Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and the UAE). This does not mean, however, that I was always able to fully understand or sympathise with all the ways of thinking and behaviour prevalent in the region, let alone accept them inwardly or even internalise them - I would have had to throw overboard many of my previous values, convictions and experiences.

Nevertheless, I have treated people with an open mind and interest in their (from my point of view) peculiarities, without denying my own principles, values and differences. I have tried to find out and analyse why they behave in certain ways and the historical, social or cultural reasons for it.

It was probably because of this approach that I was accepted and appreciated by many colleagues and partners from the region - although this was not obvious from the beginning. Some of them have even encouraged me to continue working in the Middle East. Last but not least, the Jordanian Queen Rania herself thanked me in a letter at the end of my mission for my contribution, a rather rare and by no means routine gesture which I am still proud of today.

In any case, I became very much aware during this time that tolerance is based solely on reciprocity and can only exist in everyday life in this way. If tolerance is only granted and practiced one-sidedly, then it ultimately undermines and destroys the very foundation upon which it is built. At the same time, it was helpful that I could always refer in my work to the universally recognized norms and values formulated within the framework of the United Nations.

On the following pages I will report honestly, and without ideological blinkers, on my experiences and ensuing conclusions. In this context, I would like to address the argument from the outset that any behaviour, or mentality, on which I am reporting also exists in western societies.

My position on this is as follows: There are similarities in human ways of thinking and behaviour everywhere. The big difference is the extent to which this behaviour or mentality occurs in a society or in a country, whether such behaviour is exhibited by a tiny minority or an overwhelming majority, or indeed whether it exceeds a critical point or not. Since I have also worked in other world regions, including Latin America, I have had many opportunities for comparison, which confirm this view. At the same time, this does not rule out the possibility that individual people may behave completely differently.

For example, we know and accept that the average Italian in his everyday mentality is strikingly different from the German, as is the Greek or the Spaniard. These differences are all too obvious, while at the same time they exhibit very many general human similarities. Strangely enough, such statements regarding people from the poorer countries of the world are often strictly rejected, probably for reasons of a misunderstood taboo or alleged ‘political correctness’. I do not think that is consistent. In my experience the majority of mankind is quite close to each other in terms of mentality, and it is the Germans, and possibly also the Scandinavians and North Americans, who differ quite strongly (and not necessarily positively) from the rest, inter alia through an extremely moralizing and missionary zeal coupled with excessive self-doubt. A rather dangerous mixture.

One often also hears the reproach of ‘generalization’. I contend that any description of a social system and even of a state in nature - be it biological, physical or chemical - requires a certain amount of generalization, otherwise...