Photographer Unknown, 'Landing at Koweit'

Chirol introduces his definition of the Middle East by citing a speech given by the viceroy of India Curzon a few months before his Gulf tour as well as the work of Alfred T. Mahan.

The bulk of this long article, published in a London magazine and aimed at the British public, discusses international relations in the Far East, and in particular the Russian advance into the Chinese seas. The Middle East only receives cursory attention, with the exception of the Persian Gulf which Mahan describes as a geopolitical flashpoint. The American admiral defines the Middle East as a zone with fluid borders situated between South and West Asia and centered around the Gulf. More specifically, for Mahan it was a region where Britain’s dominance of the strategic land and sea communication routes between London and India was increasingly being threatened by the encroachments of imperial rivals.