student chores

at soas tomorrow. i'm giving a presentation on the soviet union's cold war impact on the middle east, and the middle eastern influence on the course of the cold war. at 4pm in room 431 if any of you wants to come along.

my main thesis? the middle eastern states always had their own self-interest in mind and were less steered by the superpowers than we like to think. the socialist soviet union had a limited interest in the middle east, economically and ideologically. example: the oil crisis of 1973, when people in america learned to walk again, albeit for a short time. the eastern bloc only profited from that crisis. another example is the iranian revolution. or pretty much any conflict with israel.

if you have comments, scholarly if possible please, let me know before 4pm tomorrow.