Reimagining U.S. Strategy in the Middle East

Reimagining U.S. Strategy in the Middle East
Author: Dalia Dassa Kaye
Publisher:
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2021-04-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781977406620

"U.S. policy toward the Middle East has relied heavily on military instruments of power and has focused on regional threats--particularly the Iranian threat--with the goal of keeping partners on "our side." These long-standing policies have largely fallen short of meeting core U.S. interests and adapting to new regional realities and strategic imperatives. RAND researchers offer an alternative framework, suggesting that the U.S. strategic priority must center on reducing regional conflict and the drivers of conflict. This revised strategic approach puts a greater focus on addressing conflict and socioeconomic challenges that are creating unsustainable pressures on the region's states and immense suffering among its people. Researchers analyze how the tools of U.S. policy--political, security, economic, diplomatic, and informational instruments--would need to adjust to more effectively address such challenges in ways that are mindful of limited resources at home. Researchers also examine how the United States deals with both partners and adversaries in and outside the region and consider how to better leverage policies to the benefit of U.S. interests and the region. The researchers recommend specific actions organized into the following three pillars: (1) shifting resources from the current heavy reliance on military tools to a more balanced approach that prioritizes economic investments, governance, diplomacy, and programs focused on people; (2) favoring a long-term time horizon to reduce regional conflict and support growth and development, even at the cost of short-term risks; and (3) working multilaterally with global and regional partners to address key challenges." -- from the publisher.

Renewed Great Power Competition

Renewed Great Power Competition
Author: Ronald O'Rourke
Publisher:
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2019-08-22
Genre:
ISBN: 9781688018983

World events in recent years have led observers, particularly since late 2013, to conclude that the international security environment in recent years has undergone a shift from the post-Cold War era that began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, also sometimes known as the unipolar moment (with the United States as the unipolar power), to a new and different situation that features, among other things, renewed great power competition with China and Russia and challenges by these two countries and others to elements of the U.S.-led international order that has operated since World War II. The shift to renewed great power competition has become a major factor in the debate over future U.S. defense spending levels, and has led to new or renewed emphasis on the following in discussions of U.S. defense strategy, plans, and programs: * grand strategy and geopolitics as part of the context for discussing U.S. defense budgets, plans, and programs; * nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence;* new U.S. military service operational concepts;* U.S. and NATO military capabilities in Europe;* capabilities for conducting so-called high-end conventional warfare (i.e., largescale, high-intensity, technologically sophisticated warfare) against countries such as China and Russia; * maintaining U.S. technological superiority in conventional weapons;* speed of weapon system development and deployment as a measure of merit in defense acquisition policy;* mobilization capabilities for an extended-length large-scale conflict against an adversary such as China or Russia;* minimizing reliance in U.S. military systems on components and materials from Russia and China; and* capabilities for countering so-called hybrid warfare and gray-zone tactics employed by countries such as Russia and China.

What Is Russia Up To in the Middle East?

What Is Russia Up To in the Middle East?
Author: Dmitri Trenin
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2017-11-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1509522344

The eyes of the world are on the Middle East. Today, more than ever, this deeply-troubled region is the focus of power games between major global players vying for international influence. Absent from this scene for the past quarter century, Russia is now back with gusto. Yet its motivations, decision-making processes and strategic objectives remain hard to pin down. So just what is Russia up to in the Middle East? In this hard-hitting essay, leading analyst of Russian affairs Dmitri Trenin cuts through the hyperbole to offer a clear and nuanced analysis of Russia's involvement in the Middle East and its regional and global ramifications. Russia, he argues, cannot and will not supplant the U.S. as the leading external power in the region, but its actions are accelerating changes which will fundamentally remake the international system in the next two decades.

The Future Security Environment in the Middle East

The Future Security Environment in the Middle East
Author: Nora Bensahel
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2004-03-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 083303619X

This report identifies several important trends that are shaping regional security. It examines traditional security concerns, such as energy security and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as newer challenges posed by political reform, economic reform, civil-military relations, leadership change, and the information revolution. The report concludes by identifying the implications of these trends for U.S. foreign policy.

Regions and Powers

Regions and Powers
Author: Barry Buzan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 598
Release: 2003-12-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780521891110

This book develops the idea that since decolonisation, regional patterns of security have become more prominent in international politics. The authors combine an operational theory of regional security with an empirical application across the whole of the international system. Individual chapters cover Africa, the Balkans, CIS Europe, East Asia, EU Europe, the Middle East, North America, South America, and South Asia. The main focus is on the post-Cold War period, but the history of each regional security complex is traced back to its beginnings. By relating the regional dynamics of security to current debates about the global power structure, the authors unfold a distinctive interpretation of post-Cold War international security, avoiding both the extreme oversimplifications of the unipolar view, and the extreme deterritorialisations of many globalist visions of a new world disorder. Their framework brings out the radical diversity of security dynamics in different parts of the world.

Global Powers in the 21st Century

Global Powers in the 21st Century
Author: Alexander T.J. Lennon
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2008-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0262622181

Although the United States is considered the world's only superpower, other major powers seek to strengthen the roles they play on the global stage. Because of the Iraq War and its repercussions, many countries have placed an increased emphasis on multilateralism. This new desire for a multipolar world, however, may obscure the obvious question of what objectives other powerful countries seek. Few scholars and policymakers have addressed the role of the other major powers in a post-9/11 world. Global Powers in the 21st Century fills this gap, offering in-depth analyses of China, Japan, Russia, India, and the European Union in this new global context. Prominent analysts, including Zbigniew Brzezinski, C. Raja Mohan, David Shambaugh, Dmitri Trenin, Akio Watanabe, and Wu Xinbo, examine the policies and positions of these global players from both international and domestic perspectives. The book discusses each power's domestic politics, sources of power, post-9/11 changes, relationship with the United States, adjustments to globalization, and vision of its place in the world. Global Powers in the 21st Century offers readers a clear look at the handful of actors that will shape the world in the years ahead. Contributors: Franco Algieri, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Yong Deng, Xenia Dormandy, Evan A. Feigenbaum, Michael J. Green, Robert E. Hunter, Edward J. Lincoln, Jeffrey Mankoff, C. Raja Mohan, Thomas G. Moore, Robin Niblett, George Perkovich, Gideon Rachman, Richard J. Samuels, Timothy M. Savage, Teresita C. Schaffer, David Shambaugh, Robert Sutter, Dmitri Trenin, Celeste A. Wallander, Akio Watanabe, Wu Xinbo. About the Editors Alexander T.J. Lennon is editor in chief of The Washington Quarterly, the journal of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is the editor of The Epicenter of Crisis: The New Middle East (MIT Press, 2008) and other Washington Quarterly Readers. Amanda Kozlowski is associate editor of The Washington Quarterly.

The international politics of the Middle East

The international politics of the Middle East
Author: Raymond Hinnebusch
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2013-07-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1847795226

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. This text aims to fill a gap in the field of Middle Eastern political studies by combining international relations theory with concrete case studies. It begins with an overview of the rules and features of the Middle East regional system—the arena in which the local states, including Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Israel and the Arab states of Syria, Jordan and Iraq, operate. The book goes on to analyse foreign-policy-making in key states, illustrating how systemic determinants constrain this policy-making, and how these constraints are dealt with in distinctive ways depending on the particular domestic features of the individual states. Finally, it goes on to look at the outcomes of state policies by examining several major conflicts including the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Gulf War, and the system of regional alignment. The study assesses the impact of international penetration in the region, including the historic reasons behind the formation of the regional state system. It also analyses the continued role of external great powers, such as the United States and the former Soviet Union, and explains the process by which the region has become incorporated into the global capitalist market.

Subsidy Reform in the Middle East and North Africa

Subsidy Reform in the Middle East and North Africa
Author: Mr.Carlo A Sdralevich
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2014-07-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1498350437

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries price subsidies are common, especially on food and fuels. However, these are neither well targeted nor cost effective as a social protection tool, often benefiting mainly the better off instead of the poor and vulnerable. This paper explores the challenges of replacing generalized price subsidies with more equitable social safety net instruments, including the short-term inflationary effects, and describes the features of successful subsidy reforms.

Global Trends 2040

Global Trends 2040
Author: National Intelligence Council
Publisher: Cosimo Reports
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2021-03
Genre:
ISBN: 9781646794973

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

China’s Soft Military Presence in the Middle East

China’s Soft Military Presence in the Middle East
Author: Sun Degang
Publisher: King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS)
Total Pages: 26
Release: 2018-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 6038206507

China’s military relations with the countries of the Middle East have become increasingly close in recent years. To protect its commercial interests and contribute towards international security, China has built up a soft military presence of various forms in the Middle East. Such overseas military forces are deployed either within the framework of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKO) or independently, and carry out military as well as civilian missions, especially in areas such as the evacuation of nationals, humanitarian relief, search and rescue, protecting expatriates, escorting, logistics supply, peacekeeping, and conflict prevention. The soft military footprints are not for a geopolitical rivalry, but rather for mission-oriented tasks.