The historical line of development of capitalism constantly reproduces the necessity for capital to expand with the development of the productive forces. This expansion manifests itself not only in economic fields but also in political and military fields. Monopoly capital has to create new markets, new energy sources, new trade routes and new areas of hegemony in order to continue its accumulation process. This necessity is the fundamental determinant of the imperialist stage of capitalism. The Third World War we are experiencing today is the current form of this historical necessity. The fact that the Middle East is at the center of this war stems from the strategic importance of the region not only in terms of energy resources but also in terms of the global balance of power.
The Middle East hosts the majority of the world's oil and natural gas reserves and functions as the nodal point of the global energy flow. For this reason, the region is an indispensable hegemony area for monopoly capital. Powers such as the US, EU, Russia and China are in intense competition to control the energy lines, ports, straits, pipelines and trade routes in the region. This competition is not only limited to economic interests, but also involves multi-layered processes such as the shaping of political regimes, the establishment of ideological hegemony and the restructuring of regional collaborationist classes. For this reason, the war in the Middle East, although ostensibly presented as a conflict between states, is in essence an attempt by the monopoly capitalist blocs to reorganize the world geography.
One of the most prominent tools of this reorganization process is proxy wars. Instead of direct military intervention, monopoly capital wages war by using the collaborationist classes in the region and the states under their control. Therefore, the conflicts in the Middle East are the reflection of the conflicts of interests of capital and monopolies, not of the peoples.
The occupation of Iraq, the dismemberment of Syria, the destruction of Yemen, the constant siege of Palestine, the containment of Iran, the redefinition of Turkey's regional role are all fronts of the Third War of Sharing. It is the peoples who are fighting on these fronts, but the real parties to the war are the monopoly capital itself.
The reshaping of the Middle East is not limited to the control of energy resources. It also includes processes such as redrawing the political map of the region, disintegrating nation-states, deepening ethnic and sectarian fault lines, weakening the social fabric and strengthening regional collaborationist classes.
This process is the current form of imperialism's classic “Divide and Rule” strategy. Monopoly capital deepens ethnic, sectarian and cultural divisions in order to prevent the unity of the peoples in the region, to disperse class consciousness and to suppress revolutionary potential. Therefore, the war in the Middle East is not only a military war, but also an ideological and social war.
Another dimension of this war is the reorganization of energy lines. The US invasion of Iraq, Russia's intervention in Syria, China's Belt and Road project (which covers land and railroad connections from Asia to Europe, including routes such as the Central Corridor, including Turkey), the energy investments of the Gulf countries, Turkey's claim to be an energy corridor, all of these are a struggle for hegemony over the control of energy lines. The power that controls energy lines gains not only economic but also political supremacy. Therefore, the war in the Middle East is a strategic struggle over the redistribution of energy lines.
Monopoly capital's restructuring drive in the Middle East also involves the strengthening of regional collaborationist classes. These classes are elite groups representing the interests of global capital, disconnected from the peoples, holding political power and controlling economic resources. These groups are positioned according to the interests of global capital, not against their own people. For this reason, political regimes in the Middle East have turned into instruments that represent the interests of monopoly capital, not those of the peoples. This is the root cause of political instability in the region.
The fact that the Third World War is centered in the Middle East also indicates that the global balance of power is changing. The hegemonic power of the US is weakening, China is rising, Russia is re-emerging as a regional power and the EU is trying to survive as an economic power. When the interests of these powers clash in the Middle East, the region becomes a multi-layered battlefield. Therefore, the war in the Middle East is not only a regional war, but also part of the global powers' struggle for hegemony.
This picture shows that capitalism is historically blocked. The system has become unable to resolve its internal contradictions; the necessity of expansion has left no way out except to create new war zones. Therefore, when the redistribution in the Middle East is completed, monopoly capital will set its sights on Africa. Africa's huge natural resources, its young population and its structure open to exploitation will be the stage for the fourth war of division. This war will not be a short-lived conflict, but a long struggle for hegemony that will last two hundred years.