“Allied diplomacy in the Middle East was motivated by self-interest.” Discuss.

The question requires that candidates offer a considered and balanced review of the statement that allied diplomacy in the Middle East was motivated by self-interest. Candidates may produce evidence in support of the statement, including the Constantinople Agreement of 1915, which designated the various parts of the Ottoman Empire to the allied powers and/or the Sykes-Picot Agreement, by which Britain and France envisioned the post-war allied partitioning and administration of Ottoman Arab lands. Candidates may also mention allied wartime duplicity (the promises made in the Hussein-McMahon Agreement and the Balfour Declaration were contradictory) and the conflict between Wilsonian principles of self-determination and the mandate system. They may also consider arguments against the statement, including the views that allied diplomacy during the war was focused primarily on military victory, and that mandates were ruled by allied powers with a view to preparing them for self-government.