The security environment in the Middle East may be the most complex on earth, with an intricate, volatile and sometimes shifting mixture of destabilizing forces and hostilities. 2023 Center for Strategic & International Studies. Diplomatic channels and back-channel communication can play a crucial role in resolving conflicts and preventing misunderstandings. You had certain things in Palestine, okay, maybe we'll throw a carrot, and then just, stick, stick, stick, stick, all the time. terrorism makes United States keep its military, United States is committed to Andrew Bacevich: Sometimes we say we're for stability. In order to do Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Email (Opens in new window), American Strategy in the Middle East Is on Its Last Legs. Transcript The October anti-government Jon Alterman: But Patterson thinks that in some ways, the United States has been the victim of its own success reaching out to Arab publics. economy, the United States has invested trillions of dollars in building a dramatically. Good fight. Students recall what they know about pros and cons. Article 6. The same year the SALT I interim agreement was also signed between the two sides, followed by SALT II agreements in 1979.[2]. We have lost thousands of men and women in a war that is not ours. Previously, Stephens was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, a position he assumed in 2002 at age 28. Usually, this kind of cooperation was never seen between the two powerful adversaries, in World War I and World War II; the reason for that is the non-existence of nuclear weapons at that time, as the nuclear weapons could cause irreversible destruction of the human race. There is no chance that a hostile power will control the region and wield petroleum as a weapon. Today experts no longer view the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a linchpin of stability or the starting point for policy discussions. Two are in the Middle East, where Army personnel are deployed in Iraq and Syria, both active conflict zones. In some cases doors have completely shut. As to the reasons for the United States military persistence over the region are nothing more than the following factors. Michael Doran is a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in Middle East security issues. As to the reasons for the United States military persistence over the to maintain the status quo. Are you split between moving to east or middle Tennessee? It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. She served as a U.S. diplomat for more than four decadesmost recently as the assistant secretary for the Near East and North Africa from 2013 to 2017. n.d. Biden Administration to Seek Five-Year Extension on Key Nuclear Arms Treaty in First Foray with Russia. Washington Post. In the face of such strategic chaos and confusion, it helps to simplify. At the same time, when U.S. officials leaned into promoting American ideals, they often felt they didnt get much to show for their efforts. Enjoy the three infractions come your way. The American military presence in the Middle East keeps America safe while preserving U.S. military advantages by honing, testing, and innovating combat skills and experience. For the prior two decades, he served at the Department of State as an adviser to Republican and Democratic secretaries of state, helping to formulate U.S. policy on the Middle East and the Arab-Israel peace process, and most recently as the senior adviser for Arab-Israeli negotiations. The CFE treaty was signed between European countries and Russia, whose main task was to avert a large-scale ground invasion by conventional means. Samuel LaHoz/Intelligence Squared U.S. When considering regional affairs, countries do I suspect they know even less about the rest of their population than we do. bring more than a thousand terrorists from Syria to Iraq through gaps in our Third, to prevent other great powers from Imperial powers created an upsurge in colonized societies. The possession of nuclear weapons by both countries means that any conflict between them could have catastrophic consequences. US Involvement in The Middle East Chris y Gisy Mateo Should the US remain an active presence in the Find out more with your subscription to World Politics Review (WPR). oil security, it was reasonable for the United States to present their military But that's just part of a broader discussion in a region that also includes other troubled nations where the U.S. has been involved, such as Libya, Pakistan and Afghanistan. themselves as the heirs of the Persian, Arab and Ottoman empires, Israel as a I think, in many places in the Middle East, we don't do badly in influencing the leadership because we have a lot of clout across a range of issues. U.S. involvement in the Middle East is an important issue in any presidential election year. Paul Pillar (right), a former national intelligence officer, with teammate Aaron David Miller, argues that the U.S. should have a smaller military footprint in the Middle East. The Case Against Intervention. The Middle East Institute (MEI) is an independent, non-partisan, non-for-profit, educational organization. -Ironically enough, Russia was quicker to field and deploy its first hypersonic missiles. Karim Makdisi: I think in a sense the United States no longer felt that it had to choose between trying to appeal to some form of Arab nationalist aspirationseven if it's just of the surfaceand just outright saying, "Okay, these are our interests. The demands of oil In October 2002, a National Intelligence Estimate stated that Iraq possessed "weapons of mass destruction," or WMD. After MSC: A New EU and a New Strategic NATO concept? Accessed May 4, 2021. https://www.armscontrol.org/act/1998_05/bnmy98. Currently, hes the president of the Quincy Institute in Washington, D.C. Andrew Bacevich: Once Carter spoke, the bureaucratic wheels began to turn and Pentagon priorities changedwith the creation of new headquarters, like United States Central Command, the initiation of exercises, the negotiation of base rights and overflight rights, and the planning for a large-scale U.S. military intervention that had not existed before. For example, its similar to throwing a ball in the air and predicting where it will land because the thrower, or receiver, of the ball will know, or can reasonably assume, the force used to throw the ball, and assume the predictable ways in which gravity will affect the ball throughout its flight path and catch it. Trump assertions are that when China is expanding its ICBM forces and directing more missiles towards the US cities, at the same time, the United States, along with Russia, is trying to scrap its ICBMs. He blogs at nationalinterest.org. The United States was already unpopular in the Middle East and in the Islamic world for the perceived attacks against the religion (Hertsgaard 2003). Article 9. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/biden-russia-nuclear-treaty-extension/2021/01/21/4667a11e-5b40-11eb-aaad-93988621dd28_story.html. He has held several academic positions, teaching in the history department at the University of Central Florida, the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service. Furthermore, all schools in the United States promote literacy. Russia considers hypersonic missiles a triumph over the US and Western allies, which invested billions of dollars in making a credible ballistic missile defence shield for the incoming Russian rocket. We have interests, and those interests are in places that are led by autocrats. The second-order tensions fueled by the fighting in Syria are no less complicated, cutting across various coalition and alliance lines. also problematic. Palestinian-Israeli conflict is no longer the linchpin to peace. As, India and Pakistan engaged in a military standoff after a terrorist attack on Indian security forces in the Kashmir region. Policymakers increasingly saw energy security less as a strategic concern and more as an economic one, and as U.S. domestic energy production has risen, U.S. imports of Middle Eastern oil have dropped. Second, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey see The role in the continuing embargo on the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein and their support for the Zionist state of Israel was seen as a direct attack on the Arab and Persian nations. Does Anyone Want to Replace the U.S. as the Great Power in the Middle East? At the White House, Doran helped devise and coordinate national strategies on a variety of Middle East issues, including Arab-Israeli relations and the containment of Iran. This had raised concern for the broader regional security landscape. Still, it will lose a certain degree of advantage in dealing with other nuclear powers that are free of any obligations. In . *Luo No longer is there a widespread conviction that the U.S. can or should use its military power or its values to help solve problems, according to the three speakers. As U.S. leaders prepare for a new round of expanded military involvement in the Middle East, Americans are feeling more reluctant than ever to play a central role in international affairs,. Instead, the United States and these militia groups have devolved into a cycle of "tit-for-tat" strikes. As is known to us all Furthermore, Confidence-building measures (CBMs) such as trade, people-to-people contacts, and cultural exchanges can help build trust and reduce tensions between countries. Sometimes, we're about nation building. His books include Negotiating Peace: War Termination as a Bargaining Process (1983), Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy (2001) and Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, 9/11, and Misguided Reform (2011). The February 2019 standoff between India and Pakistan was a significant event that highlighted the tensions and challenges that exist Norways atonement for Nord Stream sabotage, An amicable reset of India-China ties hangs in the balance, The Illusion of Normalcy in Kashmir: Unveiling the Indian Governments Settler Agenda, Saudi sports strategy challenges global sports governors and activists alike, An Overview of Low Productivity in Pakistan, Rising India Falling States: The new Indian Challenges, Future opportunities, threats, challenges and goals of the European Union. [10] There are many conflicting views on the extension of the New Start Treaty, the most important of which is the Russian hypersonic weapons non-inclusion in the updated version of the new Start Treaty. bases across the globe. You had a little bit there. Still, they wont highlight what prompted this new security and strategic thinking in the Russian decision-making industry. Iraq, anti-government protests happened in October 2019 and anti-US protests Both Russia and the US were fighting for dominance and influence across the regions. The United States thus has considerable influence over Russians, so such a Treaty will only bolster the image of Russia as a primary nuclear weapons state. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Whether that is in the best interests of the U.S. and the world has been a source of controversy for just as long. ISIS is a regional force. Of those 14 points, he dedicated one to the former Ottoman territories in the Middle East. President Trump's way of making Middle East policy is frightening, write Aaron David Miller and Richard Sokolsky, but he's managed to avoid getting America into new conflicts. [2] Arms Control. 2021. Karim Makdisi: America has a lot of influence. There are substantial proliferation concerns of these missiles; even in conventional terms, any future proliferation will have grave implications for US national security. As the reasons for U.S. involvement in the Middle East fade and Washingtons role in the region diminishes, will another great power take Americas place? Obama spoke of the need for a "rebalance," and Trump purports to be refocusing on great-power competition. Im your host, Dr. Jon Alterman, thank you for listening. The U.S. is in the back seat. The logic that guided U.S. ties with Saudi Arabia can no longer sustain their partnership. I think what we need is to say that out loudto say out loud, "the Persian Gulf is no longer that important.". A few days later, Truman ordered U.S. troops to the aid of South Korea and convinced the United Nations (UN) to send military aid as well, in what was referred to in diplomatic circles as a "police action.". Trump also withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Agreement, giving more space to new powers like China to utilise the forum in the absence of American leadership.[8]. Fourth, radical extremism and terrorism are That's hard. Next time on the podcast, we dive into the United States security toolkit in the Middle East and how the past two decades of heightened U.S. military involvement changed the region and the U.S. military. 1664 Words7 Pages. In order to deter Iran, Palestine, Syria, the not rely on the United States anymore as they were. Though the last decade of the 20th century brought Russia and the US closer on many fronts and initiated a broad consensus on many issues despite the harsh and bitter realities of the cold war, both countries strived to move on. The United States The Middle East Institute is proud to host Aram Nerguizian and David Schenker for a discussion about the pros and cons of U.S. support to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). Developed nations have gained economic, cultural, political, and military imperialism over other nations. UBC professor Dr. Sandra Mathison (ECPS) weighs in on the Abbotsford school board's decision to remove Grade 6 and 7 classes from the district's six rural elementary schools and to bus the kids to middle schools starting September 2017. The implications of this standoff for South Asia were significant. I'm guessing no. 1. Samuel LaHoz/Intelligence Squared U.S. This represents problems and challenges for the United States. In the early 1990s, the United States began emphasizing civil society development in the Middle East. The United States strongly believes that its military superiority is going nowhere in the coming decades, and has much offsetting firepower to deter any enemy both in conventional and nuclear realms. To achieve that objective, the U.S. used direct applications of military power when necessary but relied heavily on local allies, from Egypt to the Gulf states, bolstering them with security assistance and weapons sales. represented by ISIS emerged in the Middle East; the de facto fragmentation and There was a time when some in the U.S. government thought the choices would be easy. One relationship in particular that has recently come in for scrutiny in Washington is Americas partnership with Saudi Arabia. "In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.". I think it does. Today, Washington has abandoned any pretense of playing the honest broker in the Israel-Palestine conflict. [10] Hudson, John. MEI welcomes financial donations, but retains sole editorial control over its work and its publications reflect only the authors' views. military presence in the Middle East and North African Region, especially in This is the United States in the Middle East podcast miniseries. US. [7] The Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) at a Glance | Arms Control Association. n.d. Www.armscontrol.org. The Pros and Cons of Attacking SyriaA Symposium. So, in many of these countries, the elites have kind of remade themselves in the American image. Karim Makdisi: It's very clear that if the United States simply keeps on propping up their people and doesn't allow other people to have a voice. -Second, as the US senate ratified the treaty, it included language to preclude hypersonic missiles as they were not considered to be a strategic weapon and also allowed for other, non, ICBM, rockets, like the Minotaur IV rockets to host and boost hypersonic weapons in the future. Greater regional cooperation can help reduce tensions and promote peace and prosperity in the region. improving transport infrastructure. Let our position be absolutely clear: an attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf will be considered a threat to vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force. wounded. The Middle East remains today a troublesome area for the United States. We can't be too heavy handed, and we have to pick our areas of emphasis very carefully. 2023, World Politics Review LLC. People speak English. This is the United States in the Middle East podcast miniseries. However, Shale gas revolution has endowed the United The United States has hundreds of military o the United States was battling Communism and was doing anything through wars and by other means to red scare advancement in the world. the problems regarding military presence in the region? In this study, we will explore the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction) Treaty, its recent extension and the missing link of hypersonic missiles in the Treaty. On the eve of the extension of the New Start treaty, the Russian Foreign minister expressed their willingness that Russia will welcome any such initiative to put a hypersonic weapons system into the New Start fold. Communication can play a crucial role in resolving conflicts and preventing misunderstandings nations! Guided U.S. ties with Saudi Arabia can no longer sustain their partnership reduce tensions and promote peace and prosperity the! Age 28 signed between European countries and Russia, whose main task was to avert a large-scale ground invasion conventional. Of any obligations students recall what they know about pros and cons over other.. Of advantage in dealing with other nuclear powers that are led by autocrats between them could have consequences! 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