USA's greater Middle Eastern initiative under the framework of eastern question

Having been used for the first time in Vienna Congress in 1815, the Eastern Question concept has been used to identify problems pertaining to Ottoman Empire in International Relations, from that Congress on. The problem that Russia posed that time for Europe, especially for England, required the concept of the Eastern Question to be defined in different perspectives. As a result, the Eastern Question concept is defined in this study as "a process of directed disintegration of lands under the control of the Ottoman Empire where major powers' interests are conflicting, without harming the balance of power but at the same time maximizing their interests and preventing Russia descending over the Mediterranean and the Middle East by England". The issue was settled with England through winning the WWI and resulted in shaping the Middle East. During the period called as the Cold War, the USA and the Soviets were rivals in ideological, cultural, military and such aspects. For the Cold War, this resulted in; therefore, the USA's involving in another problem "the New Eastern Question" which is defined as eradicating the Soviets' influence over the Eastern Europe and getting her out of the Middle East while keeping her under controllable boundaries". With the end of the Cold War, solving the issue of the new Eastern Question, the USA started to transform the Middle East, the geopolitical trophy and this is called as the Greater Middle Eastern Initiative. Despite being stucked in political dead ends in the region, the developments such as Obama's being elected as president in 2008 and the eruption of the Arab Spring in the region in 2010 have provided the USA quite important opportunities to shape the Middle East. The possible changes in especially Syria and Iraq, on this context, are probably going to facilitate the USA's moving the faults in the region and create important opportunities for transforming the region. KEY WORDS: Eastern Question, USA, New Eastern Question, Middle East, Greater Middle East Initiative