The Middle East: A region wracked by wars, sorrow, and lot of geographic misunderstanding. (Geography Smart).

"Trouble in the Middle East"--that headline can be found on the front page of every large newspaper almost weekly. When TV news covers a bombing in Yemen, violent clashes in the West Bank, or the location of terrorist camps in Afghanistan, it often reports that all these places are a part of the Middle East. But when you try to locate the Middle East on a map, you will notice that the words are not printed there. That's because it is a region, not a country.

What Is a Region?

When geographers study the world, or landmasses such as continents, they break areas down into regions. A region depends on what features are being examined, so it can be defined in several ways. Shared characteristics such as culture, economy, history, location, politics, religion, and topography (landforms) may be used to group areas together to form a region. There are times, however, when the common features of one area overlap with another.

Afghanistan falls into this category. It sits at the crossroads of three different geographic regions--the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia. Since so many of its people come from surrounding countries to the north and south, it can be considered a part of both Central and South Asia. That is, if news agencies, geographers, and politicians can agree on the definitions of regional boundaries.

Experts Disagree

"The Middle East is an indefinite term, an unofficial area that includes countries that belong to other regions," says Leo Dillon, a cartographer (mapmaker) at the United States Geographer's Office. Shortly after World War II (1939-1945), the Middle East was defined as a vast region, including countries of both southwest Asia and northern Africa. It stretched for almost 6,000 miles, from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco to the Ganges Delta in what is now Bangladesh.

"Today," Dillon says, "the term Middle East has been shortened to Mideast, which usually means the area of Israel, its neighboring nations, and the turmoil present there."

But not everyone agrees. For instance, we at JS define the Middle East (see map above) as all countries from Egypt to Iran, including Turkey in the north and the entire Arabian Peninsula to the south. The U.S. State Department also includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, but eliminates Turkey. The CIA's World Fact-book 2001 expands the region even farther to include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkmenistan.

Right or Wrong?

When I asked Dillon which agency had it right, he said that, since the region known as the Middle East is loosely defined, everyone is right. But he added that political and regional distinctions need to be explained and that people need to know that definitions change over time. And they should always check their information against a few sources.

Now, we can all agree on that!