Sectarianism, Hybrid War and Rebuilding New CENTO; Finding a Transnational Initiative for Revival of Muslim Ummah

Document Type : Research Article (International Relation)

Author
Amir Mohammad Esmaeili
PhD Candidate, Shanghai International Studies University, China
Abstract
The Ummah's unity has been shattered by the divide-and-rule machinations of the US through its "Global War on Terror", seemingly rendering the dream of pragmatic geopolitical cooperation between the world's majority-Muslim states a political fantasy. The so-called "Clash of Civilizations" hasn't just been weaponized to provoke inter-civilizational conflicts, but also intra-civilizational ones too, which in the Ummah's case took the form of violent sectarianism. While "conventional knowledge" would suggest that there's no surmounting these obstacles in the near future, Iran might actually be able to pioneer a breakthrough if it revives and reforms the Old Cold War-era CENTO alliance of itself, Pakistan, Turkey, and Iraq in order to symbolically contradict the sectarian trend and enter into mutually beneficial strategic relations with its three most important neighbors.
Keywords
Ummah
Iran
Pakistan
Turkey
Iraq
CENTO
Clash of Civilizations
Multipolarity
Sectarianism
Hybrid War
Subjects
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Islamic Political Thought
Volume 9, Issue 1
March 2022
Pages 39-53

  • Receive Date 03 May 2019
  • Revise Date 06 June 2019
  • Accept Date 24 August 2019