History Main / MiddleEasternCoalition

** Uniting the Arab countries (at minimum Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, and usually Mauritania and most of Sudan) is the goal of the various pan-Arab/Arab nationalist movements; this includes (at the soft end) Edward Said's democratic Arab socialism and (at the hard end) the Ba'ath Party (which rules Syria and used to rule Iraq under Saddam). Under no circumstances were Turkey or Iran invited. There have been quite a few attempts in real life to achieve this. In chronological order:

[[AC:Type I: International, Governmental Entities]]
* The Middle Eastern Coalition from ''[[BattlefieldSeries Battlefield 2]]'' is the TropeNamer.
** A more polished, professional-looking version appears in the ''ProjectReality'' mod.
* The Middle Eastern Alliance in the Battlefield-inspired TabletopGame ''BattlefieldEvolution''.
* ''CodeGeass'' had the “Middle Eastern Federation.” Not given much depiction; conquered by [[TheEmpire Britannia]] fairly early.
* The [[EndersGame ''Ender's Shadow'']] series has one of the main characters made Caliph. This one's borderline, since the Caliphate is not formally a government; instead, it's a secret, pan-Islamic shadow government that counts Israel as its closest ally. It becomes more public in ''Shadow Puppets'', when the Caliph [[spoiler: conquers India and defeats China]].
* ''{{Shadowrun}}'' had several Type I's. Turkey, Cyprus and Syria were taken over by militant Muslim sects and formed an alliance called the Second Jihad to launch an invasion of Europe. Later, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain joined together to form the nation of Arabia.

* RealLife example: the Arab League, although it's really quite a bit weaker in unity than other such bodies like the European Union.
** The Islamic Caliphate that existed while Europe was in TheDungAges, which Al Qaeda and other pan-Islamic organizations ostensibly wish to restore, and add all Sunni nations to.
** Uniting the Arab countries (at minimum Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, and usually Mauritania and most of Sudan) is the goal of the various pan-Arab/Arab nationalist movements; this includes (at the soft end) Edward Said's democratic Arab socialism and (at the hard end) the Ba'ath Party (which rules Syria and used to rule Iraq under Saddam). Under no circumstances were Turkey or Iran invited.
** There have been quite a few attempts in real life to achieve the above-mentioned pan-Arab unification. In chronological order:
*** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Federation The Arab Federation]], a confederation consisting of Iraq and Jordan for a short period in 1958;
*** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Republic The United Arab Republic]], a union between Egypt and Syria between 1958 and 1961;
*** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_States The United Arab States]], a wider and more loosely-connected confederation of the above union that also included Yemen and existed during the same three years;
*** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_of_Arab_Republics The Federation of Arab Republics (1972-1977)]], a federation between Libya, Egypt, and Syria, which Sudan also intended to join. Ratified by all three countries, but ultimately fell apart because its leaders couldn't agree on the specific terms of the merger;
*** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates The United Arab Emirates]] (which still exists to this day), formerly known as the Trucial States, also counts technically. Although internationally considered a single country, it is actually a relatively loose federation between seven different Emirates in the region.
** The Ottoman Empire, though Turkish-run rather than Arab and generally more secular than the Islamicist Coalition typical of this Trope. From the 16th through 19th centuries, the Ottoman Sultan also claimed the title of Caliph.
* The Caliphate in Stuart Slade's [[TheBigOne TBOverse]]actually subverts this trope in that the stories show the proposed caliphate to be unworkable due to its internal contradictions and it collapses in barely more than a decade

* AlternateHistoryDotCom frequently parodies this trope (especially if it's linked to DidNotDoTheResearch on the author's part), resulting in hilarious MemeticMutation terms like “the Random(id) Caliphate",” “the Obligatory Supercaliphate,” etc.
* ''UFOAlienInvasion'' has The Middle-Eastern Alliance. Its existance is a major suprise to its creators, Iran, Syria, Jordan and Afghanistan, who originally created to defend against [[ChinaTakesOverTheWorld expansionist China]]. By the end of the Second War "their position was simply too good to allow it to crumble."
* There's a reformed Islamic Caliphate in ''{{GURPS}} TranshumanSpace''. Sunni only, and a bit of thought has gone into how it happened; it was formed by a number of moderate middle eastern countries. By no means does this cover the entire region. Iran (which has become secular by 2100) is specifically excluded. Despite this the author has gone on record that he wishes he'd thought of a different name.

* The ''FTL Newsfeed'' near-future news program that ran on the SciFiChannel in the mid-1990s had a Holy Islamic Federation covering the whole of Africa (except Fortress Israel).

* In ''HeartsOfIron II'', you can 'liberate' countries whose territory you conquer. If you conquer the Mideast, you can created a united Arab Federation which includes the territory from Egypt to Yemen/Oman and Iraq. (But not Iran/Persia, Turkey, or Libya.)
* Some of HBeamPiper's short stories mention an Islamic Caliphate, or "Kaliphate" in "The Mercenaries," where it's one of the world's four great power blocs. The Caliphate in the TFH story "The Edge of the Knife" is clearly pro-Western in 1973, shortly before WorldWarIII.

[[AC:Type II: Non-Governmental, Terroristic Entities]]

<<|SpeculativeFictionTropes|>>

* The Global Liberation Army from ''[[CommandAndConquer Command and Conquer: Generals]]''.

* The Caliphate in Stuart Slade's [[TheBigOne TBOverse]]
** the TBO verse actually subverts this trope in that the stories show the proposed caliphate to be unworkable due to its internal contradictions.

* There's a reformed Islamic Caliphate in ''{{GURPS}} TranshumanSpace''. Sunni only, and a bit of thought has gone into how it happened. Despite this the author has gone on record that he wishes he'd thought of a different name.

* In GURPS TranshumanSpace a number of moderate middle eastern countries have formed the Islamic Caliphate. By no means does this cover the entire region, Iran (which has become secular by 2100) is specifically excluded.

** The Ottoman Empire, though Turkish-run rather than Arab and generally more secular than the Islamicist Coalition typical of this Trope.

* The setting for Ground Zero Games's ''FullThrust,'' ''[[TankGoodness Dirtside II]]'', and ''[[TheSquad Star Grunt II]]'' all have something called the Islamic Federation as one of the factions, which evidently controls the Middle East and north Africa (having swallowed the territory of Israel along the way). In a bit of a twist, the IF has problems with breakaway colonies in what's called the Saeed Caliphate.

* The setting for Ground Zero Games's [[StandardStarshipScuffle Full Thrust]], [[TankGoodness Dirtside II]], and [[TheSquad Star Grunt II]] all have something called the Islamic Federation as one of the factions, which evidently controls the Middle East and north Africa (having swallowed the territory of Israel along the way). In a bit of a twist, the IF has problems with breakaway colonies in what's called the Saeed Caliphate.

*** Although most of its reasoning [[UnfortunateImplications amounts to "those silly brown people!"]].

* Subversion: The Ten Rings organization in TheMovie ''[[Film/IronMan of Iron Man]]'' appears to be this (despite speaking languages such as Urdu and Romanian), but the novelization refers to the head of the organization, Mandarin, who is Mongolian.

* The [[EndersGame ''Enders Shadow'']] series has one of the main characters made Caliph.

* The ''EndersShadow'' series has one of the main characters made Caliph.

Often portrayed as a sort of SpiritualSuccessor to RedScare. [[{{ptitle1d213erd}} (For fairly obvious reasons on the writers part.)]] May or may not be a {{Qurac}}.

Often portrayed as a sort of SpiritualSuccessor to RedScare. [[WhyWereBummedCommunismFell (For fairly obvious reasons on the writers part.)]] May or may not be a {{Qurac}}.

May or may not be a {{Qurac}}.

*** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Federation The Arab Federation], a confederation consisting of Iraq and Jordan for a short period in 1958;
*** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Republic The United Arab Republic], a union between Egypt and Syria between 1958 and 1961;
*** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_States The United Arab States], a wider and more loosely-connected confederation of the above union that also included Yemen and existed during the same three years;
*** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_of_Arab_Republics The Federation of Arab Republics (1972-1977)], a federation between Libya, Egypt, and Syria, which Sudan also intended to join. Ratified by all three countries, but ultimately fell apart because its leaders couldn't agree on the specific terms of the merger;
*** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates The United Arab Emirates] (which still exists to this day), formerly known as the Trucial States, also counts technically. Although internationally considered a single country, it is actually a relatively loose federation between seven different Emirates in the region.

Prior to the 1980s, these tended to be secular military dictatorships or socialist/nationalist regimes (like the real-life abortive attempt to set up a United Arab Republic combining Egypt, Syria and Iraq, as well as Libya's attempt). Since the rise in fundamentalism, Iranian Revolution and especially 9/11, a more popular idea is to combine it into one huge poorly defined "Inevitable Caliphate" theocracy. This is al-Qaida's primary war aim, but it is probably not in the stars -- at least not if Iran and Turkey have anything to say about it. Beyond that, al-Qaida is, at the end of the day, a lunatic fringe; most other Islamists are non-violent nationalists who probably have a worse view of Osama bin Laden than most Westerners ("[[DontShootTheMessage You're making us]] ''[[DontShootTheMessage all]]'' [[DontShootTheMessage look evil!]]" is what they usually say), and al-Qaida itself--according to the CIA, MI6, French Intelligence, Russian Intelligence, and pretty much everyone else--is down to about 300 guys on the run in the mountains of Pakistan. SoYeah.

* The Caliphate in Stuart Slade's TBOverse