Listening to an Iranian official describe his region as “West Asia” got me wondering if the word “Middle East” is on the outs and why. I suspect Middle East is eurocentric for some reason, but West Asia also preserves Europe as a continent, which is Eurocentric in its own way because Europe is not a continent and never was. If we’re calling anything West Asia, it should be Spain and Portugal.
It’s an orientalist term, relative to “the far East”, and yes, Eurocentric too. The region known as the “Middle East” is actually West Asia. It’s in Asia.
Sure, Europe is an Asian peninsula, whatever, but at least “conventionally” Europe is considered its own continent. The countries in the “Middle East” are conventionally considered to be Asian and the westernmost part of Asia. Everybody, including the people who live there, considers the region a part of Asia. That’s not a disputed thing. So it makes sense to call them West Asia. I suppose if you want to recognise Europe as an Asian peninsula then we’d have to call West Asia something else.