Archive | Pivot away from Middle East RSS feed for this section
Richard Falk
Richard Falk is an international law and international relations scholar who taught at Princeton University for forty years. Since 2002 he has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and taught at the local campus of the University of California in Global and International Studies and since 2005 chaired the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. He initiated this blog partly in celebration of his 80th birthday.
Archives
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
Tags
AKP
anti-Semitism
apartheid
Balfour Declaration
Barack Obama
BDS
Climate change
Cold War
Democracy
diplomacy
Donald Trump
Egypt
Erdogan
European Union
Gaza
Gaza Strip
geopolitics
George W. Bush
Gilad Shalit
Hamas
Hilary Clinton
Hiroshima
Holocaust
Hosni Mubarak
Human rights
International Court of Justice
International Criminal Court
international law
Iran
Iraq
Iraq War
ISIS
Israel
Israel-Palestine
Israel/Palestine
Japan
Jerusalem
Libya
Middle East
militarism
NATO
Netanyahu
New York Times
Nobel Peace Prize
Nuclear disarmament
nuclear weapons
Obama
Palestine
Palestinian people
Palestinian prisoners in Israel
Palestinian territories
peace process
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
revolution
Richard Falk
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Snowden
Soviet Union
Syria
Tel Aviv
Terrorism
Trump
Turkey
UN
United Nations
United Nations Security Council
United States
Vietnam
Vietnam War
war crimes
Washington
West Bank
World War II
Zionism
Recent Posts
Categories
- 'Abnormal' Japan
- 'Fortress World'
- 'Normal' Japan
- 'Operation Protective Edge'
- 'Peace Process'
- 'Voluntary' International Law
- (un)civility
- 13 Demands
- 1915 Genocide
- 1948 War of Independence
- 1967 War
- 9/11 Attacks
- A Quiet Heart
- A remebrance
- Abbas
- Abdullah Gul
- Abraham Center for Middle East Peace
- academic freedom
- acadmic freedom
- accountability
- Adala Urgent Appeal
- Administrative Detention
- Africa
- aggression
- Ahed Tamimi
- Ahmet Davutoğlu
- AKP
- Al Aqsa Mosque
- al-Shayat Airfield
- Alfred Nobel
- Algeria
- Ali Mazrui
- alliance
- Altamont Speedway Concert
- Alternative Facts
- America
- America as republic
- American elections
- American Embassy Seuzure
- American foreign policy
- American presidential campaign
- American presidential election
- American racism
- American Sniper
- AMEXIT
- Amos Oz
- and Opponents
- Anit-BDS Summit
- anit-Semitism
- Anti-colonialism
- anti-Semitism
- anti-Semitism
- Anti-Zionism UN Resolution
- Antonina Zabinski
- apartheid
- Apartheid Convention
- Apology
- Aquino
- Arab Spring
- Armenia
- Armenian community
- Armenian Genocide
- arms control
- arms sales
- Article 9
- aspirational democracy
- asymmetric warfare
- Ataturk
- atomic attacks
- atomic bomb
- Audre Lorde
- Auschwitz
- authoritarianism
- autocracy
- Ayatollah Khomeini
- Ayelet Shaked
- Azopt
- Balfour Declaration
- Ban KI-moon
- BAN Treaty
- Barack Obama
- Bashar el-Assad
- Basher al Assad
- BBC
- BDS
- BDS Campaign
- BDS-Bashing
- Belgium
- Ben Ali Saleh
- Benjiman Netanyahu
- Bernie Sanders
- Berrigan Brothers
- Bibi Netanyahu
- Bill Clinton
- Bill Cosby
- Binali Yildirim
- binary thinking
- Biopolitical Moment
- blog boundaries
- blog civility
- blog comments
- Blog ethics
- Bob Kerrie
- book burning
- BREXIT
- British Mandate
- Brzezinski
- Bush family
- Caeser Group
- Cambodia
- campaign fundraising
- capital punishment
- Capitalism
- Carl Schmitt
- Caterpillar
- Catholicism
- ceasefire
- Chaim Weizman
- charismatic resilience
- Charles Blow
- Charlie Hebdo
- Charlottesville
- Chas Freeman
- Chemical Weapons
- Cherif Chouachi
- Chernobyl
- child prisoners
- China
- CHP
- Christmas
- Christopher Kennedy
- citizen pilgrim
- citizenship
- City of
- citzenship
- civil disobedience
- civil society
- Civil Society Discourse
- civil society tribunals
- civility
- Claudia Rankine
- Clean Break
- Climate Change
- climate denial
- climate justice
- Clinton
- Clinton Defeat
- Clinton's belligerence
- Cold War
- collective punishment
- collective security
- Collective Self-Defense
- Colombia Peace Process
- Colonial Legacies
- colonialism
- Comment Guidelines
- Commentary
- Complexity
- Conservative Republicans
- Constitutional issues
- consumerism
- contextual and configurative analysis
- Copenhagen failure
- Corporate responsibility
- cosmic consciousness
- cosmopolitanism
- Council of Foreign Relations
- counter-terrorism
- Counterinsurgency Tactics
- counterinsurgency warfare
- Counterinsurgency Wars
- Counterrevolution
- counterterrorism
- Coup aftermath
- Coup attempt
- Cour failure
- Craig Hicks
- crime of apartheid
- crime or war
- Crimea
- Crimes against Humanity
- Crimes of State
- Criminal Accountability
- Criminal Law
- Criminality
- Cruz
- Cuban Revolution
- cultural imagination
- cultural war of aggression
- culture of violence
- cyber attacks
- Dan Ellsberg
- Daniel Berrigan
- Daniel Ellsberg
- Daniel Pipes
- Dany Danon
- Dautoglu
- David Krieger
- Davutoglu
- Dayan Jayatilleka
- debate
- decline of democracy
- Defamation
- Defamatory Comments
- demagogue
- demilitarization
- democracy
- democratic elections
- Democratic Paarty
- Democratic Party
- Democratic Party foreign policy
- Demographic Bomb
- denuclearization
- Depolarization
- Derrida
- deterrence
- dialogic humility
- dialogue
- Dieudonne
- digital age
- Digital Etiquette
- Digital Home
- Digital India
- Diploamacy
- diplomacy
- diplomatic initiative
- Diplomatic Protocol
- dipomacy
- disarmament
- discourse
- dispossession
- Donald Trump
- double standards
- Douma CW attack
- drone warfare
- drones
- drug prices
- dystopia
- early Christianity
- Ebrahim Yazdi
- eco-humanism
- eco-insurgency
- eco-politics
- ecological alienation
- Ecological Civilization
- ecological collapse
- Ecological Ethos
- ecological jurisprudence
- ecology
- Economic embargo
- education
- educational reform
- Edward Said
- Edward Snowden
- Effective Control
- Egypt
- Egypt (2011) (2013)
- Electoral College
- electoral politics
- Elizabeth McAlister
- ending apartheid
- ending occupation
- Enlightenment
- environmment
- Eqbal Ahmed
- Erdogan
- ESCWA
- ESCWA Report
- espionage
- Ethics of Apology
- Ethno-nationalist Moment
- ethnocracy
- ethnographhic moment
- Euromed
- Europe
- European statecraft
- European Union
- European Unity
- failed coup
- False Certainty
- False Consciousness
- fanaticism
- fascism
- Father Miguel D'Escoto
- Fethullah Gulen
- FETO
- Fetullah extradition
- Fetullah Gulen
- Fidel
- Fidel Castro
- FIFA
- FIFA and Palestinian Football
- Force-feedomg
- foreign military bases
- forgiveness
- Fouad Ajami
- France and the United States
- Francis Fukuyama
- Fred Skolnik
- Fredrik Heffermehl
- freedom of expression
- Fukashima Daiichi
- Fukushima
- Fulbright Vietnam University
- funding terrrorism
- future generations
- Gandhi
- Gaza
- Gaza
- Gaza occupation
- Gaza oppressi
- General Yair Golan
- genocide
- Genocide Controversy
- Genocide Convention
- Genocide-duty to prevent
- Geoffrey Darnton
- Geopolitic bersus International Law
- geopolitical laws
- Geopolitical Militarism
- geopolitics
- George H.W. Bush
- George McGovern
- George W. Bush
- Germany
- Gerry Spence
- Gideon Levy
- glaucoma
- Global autocracy
- Global Battlefield
- Global Capital
- global citizen
- global domination project
- Global Governance
- Global Imperial State
- global interest
- global justice
- global leadership
- Global presidency
- global risks
- global security
- Global State
- global warming
- Grand Inquisitor
- Grand Strategy
- Guantanamo
- Gujurat
- Gulf Cooperation Council
- Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
- Gulf Crisis
- Gulf Crisis of 2014
- Gulf Monarchies
- gun culture
- hacking
- Haider Eid
- Haim Saban
- Hamas
- Hamas Charter
- Hanan Ashrawi
- harmony with nature
- Harrisburg 7
- hasbara
- hate speech
- HDP
- Health
- Heffermehl
- Henry Kissinger
- Henry L. Stimson
- Henry Paulson
- Hersch Lauterpacht
- Hewlett Packard
- hibakusha
- Hilary Clinton
- Hilary Clinton's foreign policy
- Hillary Clinton
- Hiroshima
- Hirosshima
- History
- Hizmet
- Hizmet movement
- Ho Chi Minh
- Holocaust
- House of Commons vote
- Houthis
- human interest
- human interests
- Human Rights
- Human Rights
- Human Rights Council
- Human Rights Watch
- human security
- humanism
- Hunger Strike
- identity
- imagination
- Imelda Marcos
- Implementation
- impunity
- Incitement to Genocide
- inclusiveness
- indefinite detention
- India
- Indian Wells Tennis Tournament
- Insiders v. Outsiders
- internal displacement
- Internation Law
- International & Global Law
- International Chaos
- International Court of Justice
- International Court of Justice (ICJ)
- International Crimes
- International Criminal Court
- International criminal law
- International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People
- international humanitarian law
- international law
- international law
- international lawyers
- International Liberal Order
- International reputation
- intervention
- interview
- Iran
- Iran (1979)
- Iran diplomacy
- Iran Nuclear Agreement
- Iran nuclear diplomacy
- Iran Nuclear Program
- Iran's nuclear program
- Iranian democracy
- Iraq occupation
- Iraq War
- Ireland
- ISIS
- Islamophobia
- Israel
- Israel elections
- Israel Palestine
- Israel prisons
- Israel's Arms Industry
- Israel's Obligations under IHL
- Israel-Palestine
- Israel/Palestine
- Israel/Palestine
- Israeli 'Democracy'
- Israeli apartheid
- Israeli assassinations
- Israeli Entitlements
- Israeli impunity
- Israeli jurisprudence
- Israeli Law
- Israeli Lobby
- Israeli one-state
- Israeli One-State Solution
- Israeli one-state unilateralism
- Israeli Prisons
- Israeli Security Establishment
- Israeli soul searching
- Israeli war crimes
- Istanbul
- Italy
- Jacob Mchangama
- Jacques Derrida
- James Douglass
- James Zogby
- Japan
- JCPOA
- Jean Bricmont
- Jeff Halper
- Jeremy Hammond
- Jerusalem
- Jerusalem Resolution
- Jerusalem UN Resolution
- Jewish exceptionalism
- Jewish identity
- Jewish Voices for Peace
- jihadism
- Jill Stein
- John Bolton
- John Ikenberry
- John Kasich
- John Kerry
- John Pilger
- Joint Declaration on International Law
- Joint Statement of Opposition
- Jonathan Pollard
- Joseph Nye
- journalistic ethics
- Juan Manuel Santos
- July 15th
- July 15th Coup Attempt
- justice
- Kader Asmal
- Kellyanne Conway
- Kerry Diplomacy
- Khan Sheikhoun
- Kim Jung-un
- Kissinger
- knowledge
- Kosovo
- Kurdish conflict
- Kurdish Issues
- Kurdish movement
- Kurdish struggle
- Kurdish victory
- Kurds
- Kyoto
- Laos
- Law Enforcement
- Lawfare
- Lawfare Project
- leadership
- leadership crisis
- League of Nations
- Legitimacy
- Legitimacy War
- Legitimacy War
- Legitimacy Wars
- liberal
- Liberal Democrats
- Liberal Zionism
- liberalism
- Libya
- Lidia Yuknavitch
- logic of reciprocity
- lost causes
- luxury
- Macron
- Madrid train bombings
- Mahmoud Abbas
- Makarim Wibisono
- Marco Rubio
- Marcos
- Mario Savio
- Marjorie Cohn
- Marsahll Islands nuclear zero litigation
- Martin Niemoller
- Marwan Barghouti
- Max Blumenthal
- Mazin Qumsiyeh
- media
- meditative intelligence
- Mega-Terorism
- megaterrorism
- memoir
- Memories
- Mendlovitz
- Mental Health
- Mexico
- Michael Moore
- Michael Oren
- Michael Walzer
- Middle East
- Middle East Forum
- Middle East geopolitics
- Middle Easy
- Miguel d'Escoto
- Mika Brzezinski
- Mikhail Gorbachev
- militarism
- military intervention
- military technology
- Mira Regev
- Mission for Growth
- Modernity
- Mohammed Omer
- Money
- Moral Revolution
- Morning 'Joe'
- Motorola Solutioons
- Muslim Brotherhood
- Nagasaki
- Nakba
- Nakba as Process
- Naomi Klein
- NAPF
- Narendra Modi
- national interest
- national liberation
- National Review
- National Security
- national security legislation
- nationalism
- NATO
- Nazi period
- Nebraska
- needs based development
- Neoliberal Capitalism
- neoliberalism
- Netanyahu
- netizenship
- New Anti-Semitism
- New Cold War
- new geopolitics
- New Wars
- new world order
- New York Times
- NGOs
- Nicaragua
- Nikki Haley
- no first use
- No Fly Zone (NFZ)
- Nobel Peace Forum
- Nobel Peace Prize
- Nobel Prize
- Non-intervention
- Non-violent Struggle
- nonproliferation
- nonproliferation
- nonproliferation treaty
- Nonviolence
- Nonviolent Resistance
- normative democracy
- North Carolina murders
- North Korea
- north/south divide
- NPT
- NPT Article IV
- nuclear age
- Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
- Nuclear Ban Treaty
- nuclear civil disobeidence
- Nuclear Disarmament
- Nuclear disarmament
- nuclear education
- Nuclear Famine
- nuclear power
- nuclear securitization
- nuclear war
- Nuclear Weapons
- Nuclear Weapons Policy
- nuclearism
- Nuremberg Human Rights Award 2017
- Nuremberg Judegment
- Nuremberg Judgment
- Nuremberg Laws
- Nuremberg Obligation
- Nuremberg Principles
- Nuremburg
- NY Times
- Obama
- Obama on nuclear policy
- Obama's foreign policy
- Obama's Irvine Commencement Address
- Obstacle to Peace
- occupation
- Occupied Palestine
- oil
- Okinawa
- Old City of Jerusalem
- old geopolitics
- Omar Barghouti
- One-Israel-State-Solution
- One-state
- one-state solution
- Open Letter to Trump
- oppression
- Oppressive Occupation
- Oren Ben-Dor
- Orientalism
- Oslo Approach
- Oslo diplomacy
- Oslo Peace Process
- Oslo Process
- Outlaw State
- P-5
- P5
- P5 +1 Agreement
- Pacification
- Palestine
- Palestine
- Palestine Authority
- Palestine Prisoners
- Palestine statehood
- Palestine/Israel
- Palestinian Authority
- Palestinian children prisoners
- Palestinian people
- Palestinian Self-determination
- Palestinian solidarity
- Palestinian statehood
- Palestinians
- Paris 2015
- Paris Agreement
- Paris Attacks
- Paris Climate Change Agreement
- Paris Preamble
- Partition Resolution
- Partition War
- Patriotism
- Paul Raskin
- peace
- Peace and Justice
- peace journalism
- Peace process
- Peace Talks
- Peace Through Diplomacy
- Pearl Harbor
- Pentagon
- Peres Funeral
- Personal Background
- petropolitics
- Philip Berrigan
- Philippines
- Phyllis Bennis
- Pivot away from Middle East
- Pivot to Asia
- PKK
- Plan B: Colonial Retreat
- Plan C: A Just Peace
- Planetary Realism
- PLO
- Plowshares 8
- Poems
- Poetic Wisdom
- Poetry
- poetry & war
- polarization
- Police Brutality
- Police State
- political community
- Political Community?
- Political correctness
- political extremism
- political fundraising
- political leadership
- political style
- political violence
- Politics of Apology
- Politics of Language
- Pope Francis
- Popular Mobilization
- Popular Vote
- populism
- Populist Representation
- Port Huron Statement
- post-colonial colonialism
- Power as Crime
- Pre-Fascism
- Presbyterian Divestment
- President Erdogan
- Presidential Campaign
- Presidential System
- Primary Campaign
- Princeton University
- procedural democracy
- progressive
- Progressive Populism
- Protection of Holy Sites
- Protective Edge
- public intellectual
- Punitive Peace
- Qaddafi
- Qatar
- QGOs
- R2P Diplomacy
- racialized language
- racism
- Radical Humanism
- Rafael Lemkin
- Ralph Nader
- ran
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan
- reconciliation
- Reflections
- Reform
- refugee law
- regime change
- regional conflict
- Regional Disengagement
- Religion
- religious counterrevolution
- representation
- republican democracy
- Republican Party
- republicanism
- Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
- Reuven Rivlin
- Revolution
- Richard Falk
- Richard Goldstone
- Richard Haass
- Richard Kemp
- Rima Khalaf
- risk management
- Risky Business
- Robert Faurisson
- Robert Kaplan
- Robert O Paxton
- Robin Nisblett
- Roger Cohen
- Rome
- Ronald Reagan
- Rouhani
- rules of the game
- Russell Tribunal
- Russia
- Russian hacking
- Ryōkan
- Sakamoto
- Salmon Rushdie
- Samer Issawi
- Samuel Huntington
- Sanctions
- Sanders' Revolution
- Santa Barbara Fires
- Sarin Gas
- Saudi Arabia
- Saudi Royal Family
- SC Res. 242
- Scientific Consensus
- Sean MacBride
- Secretary General
- sectarian warfare
- Sectarianism
- Secular one-state
- secular Zionism
- secularism
- security
- Security Council
- Security Council veto
- Security Councull veto
- Selection Process
- self-determination
- Self-reflections
- semantics
- Sepp Blatter
- Serena Williams
- Settlement Outposts
- Settlements
- SHEEL-SHOCKED
- Shimon Peres
- Shinzo Abe
- Shireen Issawi
- Shlomo Sand
- Shooting the Messenger
- Silicon Valley
- Sisi
- Smearing BDS
- social welfare
- South Africa
- South African apartheid
- Special Rapporteur
- Special Rapporteur on Palestine
- Special Relationship
- Special Relationship (Israel)
- Special Relationship (Saudi Arabia)
- Special Relationships
- Species Idenity
- species survival
- Spirituality
- state building
- state system
- state-centric versus earth-centric
- State-centric world
- Stefan Andersson
- Stephen Rappp
- Stephen Zunes
- Steven Salaita
- substantive democracy
- superdelegates
- suppression
- Surveillance
- sustainability
- sustainable peace
- Swedish initiative
- Swedish recognition pledge
- Sykes-Picot
- Sykes-Picot Agreement
- Syria
- Syrian ceasefire
- Syrian Dilemma
- Syrian war crimes
- Tahrir Square
- Ted Cruz
- Temple Mount and Western Wall
- tennis
- TEPCO
- Terrorism
- terrorism
- terrorist
- The Economist
- The Orwellian State
- Third Parties
- Thomas Jefferson
- Three Pillars of American foreign policy
- Timothy Snyder
- Tom Friedman
- torture
- traitor
- Transformational Horizons
- treason
- tribalism
- Trumism
- Trump
- Trump Era
- Trump Foreign Policy
- Trump Presidency
- Trump's demonic worldview
- Trump's geopolitics
- Trump's Inaugural Address
- Trump's worldview
- Trumpism
- Trumpt
- Tsutomu Yamaguchi
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkey
- Turkey-Yemen
- Turkish domestic politics
- Turkish Elections
- Turkish foreign policy
- Turkish leadership
- Turkish November elections
- Twitter tweets
- two-state consensus
- Two-State Solution
- Two-State-Solution
- Two-states
- U.S. Congress
- U.S. Constitution
- U.S. Constitutionalism
- U.S. Foreign Policy
- U.S. Global State
- U.S. Government role
- U.S. State Department
- U.S./Israel Alliance
- UAE
- Ukraine
- UN
- UN 'shame list'
- UN Balance Sheet
- UN Charter
- UN Commission of Inquiry
- UN funding
- UN Human Rights Council
- UN Reform
- UN Secretary General
- UN Security Council
- UN Security Council Veto
- UN veto
- UN Watch
- Uncategorized
- Uncertainty
- underground homes
- UNESCO
- United Nations
- United States
- United States
- United States alliance
- United States Congress
- United States foreign policy
- United States response
- Uniting for Peace Resolution
- Unity Government
- universal jurisdiction
- University of Illinois
- UNSC 2334
- US 'Special Relationships'
- US Congress
- US interference
- US-Israel Special Relationship
- utopianism
- Vanunu
- Versailles Peace Treaty
- Veto Power
- Victors' Justice
- Victory Caucus
- Victory Scenario
- Vietnam
- Vietnam and Palestine
- Vietnam Lessons
- Vietnam War
- Virginia Tilley
- Vision of Prague
- Voluntary Agreement
- Wahabbism
- Wahabism
- Wall Street
- war crimes
- war journalism
- war making
- War on Terror
- war prevention
- Warsaw Ghetto
- Warsaw Zoo
- Wesphalian Model
- West
- West Point
- Westphalia
- Westphalian Representation
- William Schabas
- wisdom
- Women's March
- WOMP
- Woodrow Wilson
- world citizen
- world government
- World Government Research Network
- world order
- World Order Models Project
- World Parliament
- World Politics
- World War I
- World War I diplomacy
- worldview
- Xi Jinping
- Yeats
- Yemen
- Yemen Intervention
- Yenkapi Rally
- Zbigniew Brzezinski
- Zionism
- Zombie Solution
- zoo animals
Education
Newspapers
Advertisements
An Unlikely AMEXIT: Pivoting Away from the Middle East
14 Jul[Prefatory Note: The post that follows is a modified version of an opinion piece that was published by Al Jazeera English on July 10, 2016; it examines the argument for disengagement from the Middle East by analogizing a plausible AMEXIT to BREXIT.]
The Case for Disengagement
A few years ago Barack Obama made much of an American pivot to East Asia, a recognition of China’s emergence and regional assertiveness, and the related claim that the American role in Asia-Pacific should be treated as a prime strategic interest that China needed to be made to respect. The shift also involved the recognition by Obama that the United States had become overly and unsuccessfully engaged in Middle Eastern politics creating incentives to adjust foreign policy priorities. The 2012 pivot was an overdue correction of the neocon approach to the region during the presidency of George W. Bush that reached its climax with the disastrous 2003 intervention in Iraq, which continues to cause negative reverberations throughout the region. It was then that the idiocy of ‘democracy promotion’ gave an idealistic edge to America’s military intervention and the delusion prospect of the occupiers receiving a warm welcome from the Iraqi people hit a stone wall of unanticipated resistance.
In retrospect, it seems evident that despite the much publicized ‘pivot’ the United States has not disengaged from the Middle East. Its policies are tied as ever to Israel, and its fully engaged in the military campaigns taking place in Syria and against DAESH. In a recent article in The National Interest, Mohammed Ayoob, proposes a gradual American disengagement from the region. He makes a highly intelligent and informed strategic interest argument based on Israel’s military superiority, the reduced Western dependence on Gulf oil, and the nuclear agreement with Iran. In effect, Ayoob convincingly contends that circumstances no longer justify a major American engagement in the region, and that to maintain the commitment at present levels adds to Middle East turmoil, and its extra-regional terrorist spillover, in ways that harms American interests.
Why Disengagement Won’t Happen
Ayoob’s reasoning is flawless, but disengagement won’t happen, and not because Americans are not smart enough to recognize changed circumstances. The pivot to East Asia was a recent instance of such an adjustment based on an assessment of changed geopolitical circumstances. Actually, the high degree of American involvement in the Middle East was itself the result of an adjustment to changed circumstances. After the Soviet collapse, the earlyier geopolitical preoccupation with Europe seemed superfluous and outmoded, and the Middle East with its oil, Israel, expanding Islamic influence, risky nuclear proliferation potential seemed then like a region where a strong American commitment would solidify its role as global leader. This perception was reinforced after the Al Qaeda 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, which gave neocon hawks a pretext for a regime-changing attack on Iraq, which the neocons hoped was but a prelude to a more elaborate political reconfiguring of the region by way of regime-changing interventions. [See ‘Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm’ (1996) for a fuller understanding of the Israeli oriented neocon mindset] The Iraqi undertaking failed miserably during the state-rebuilding occupation that followed upon the attack and overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime. The master plan involved reconstructing the government and economy of Iraq to serve Western interests while at the same time supposedly democratizing the country. It totally backfired. This American pivot to the Middle East after the Cold War was based on the geopolitical opportunism of Washington in a context of a persisting failure to understand the changing circumstances of the post-colonial world, and especially the altered balance between the military superiority associated with foreign intervention and the resourcefulness of territorial resistance.
So why the inflexibility with respect to the Middle East when disengagement brings immediate major practical advantages? Part of the explanation is surely governmental inertia, reinforced by the belief that the changes in conditions are not as clear and favorable as Ayoob contends, making disengagement seem geopolitically vulnerable to future charges that the Obama presidency was responsible for ‘losing the Middle East,’ as if it was ever America’s to lose!
More to the point is a range of other reasons militating against disengagement. Perhaps, most significant, is the militarist bias of American foreign policy that is even unable to acknowledge that the attacks on Iraq or Libya were failures. This refusal to think outside the military box prevails in American policy circles, making the debate on what to do about Syria or DAESH center on the single question of how much American military power should be deployed to resolve these conflicts. What Eisenhower called the military industrial complex has come to dominate the machinery of government in Washington, further abetted by the accretion of a huge homeland security bureaucracy since 9/11. Real threats to American interests exist in the Middle East, and given this unwillingness to rely on political or diplomatic solutions for the resolution of most disputes, virtually requires the United States to retain its military presence to ensure the availability of options to intervene militarily whenever the occasion arises.
Then there is the anti-international mood that has taken over American domestic politics. It is hostile to every kind of international commitment other than military action against real and imagined Islamic enemies. Additionally, the US Congress has been completely captured by the Israeli Lobby, which puts a high premium on maintaining the American geopolitical engagement so as to share with Israel the burdens and risks associated with the management of regional turbulence. As neither the Arab uprisings of 2011 nor the robust counterrevolutionary aftermath were anticipated, it is argued that there is too uncertainty to risk any further disengagement. This is coupled with the claim that the rapid drawdown of American combat forces in Iraq was actually premature, and led to a resurgence of civil strife that has persuaded the Obama administration to redeploy American troops both to aid in the fight to regain territory occupied by ISIS and to help the government to establish some degree of stability.
Why Disengagement Should Happen
Neither realist arguments about interests nor ethical considerations of principle will lead to an overdue American disengagement. Washington refuses to understand why intervention by Western military forces in the post-colonial Middle East generates dangerous extremist forms of resistance (e.g. DAESH) magnifying the problems that prompted intervention in the first place. In essence, the intervention option is a lose/lose proposition, but without it American engagement makes no sense.
Unfortunately, for America and the peoples throughout the Middle East the US seems incapable of extricating itself from yet another geopolitical quagmire that is partly responsible for generating extra-regional terrorism of the sort that has afflicted Europe in the last two years. And so although disengagement is a sensible course of action, it won’t happen for a long, long time, if at all. Unlike BREXIT, for AMEXIT, and geopolitics generally, there are no referenda offered the citizenry.
##
Tags: American disengagement, American domestic politics, AMEXIT, disengagement, geopolitics, Iraq invasion and occupation, Israel Lobby, Middle East, militarism