Since the end of the Second World War, and more acutely since the end of the Cold War, policymakers in Washington have often viewed the Middle East as a land of perpetual crisis, instability, and unrest, a state of affairs to be managed through diplomatic and, at times, military intervention. However, in many ways, such perceptions are neither novel nor unique to the United States. Rather they can be traced back to the nineteenth century. This was a period that saw a rapid intensification of European diplomatic and military intervention into the affairs of the Ottoman Empire, the so-called sick man of Europe.
In this episode of Talking History, Djene and Patrick speak to Dr. Ozan Ozavci about his 2022 book, Imperialism, Security, and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798-1864, which explores European-Ottoman relations in the nineteenth century.
In Talking History Extra, continuing at 25:55 in the audio, they go to discuss Dr. Ozavci's work on the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. To learn more, see https://thelausanneproject.com.
Dr. Ozan Ozavci is Assistant Professor of Transimperial History at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His research interests are in the entangled histories of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa from the late eighteenth century until the 1950s.
