West Asia: A New American Grand Strategy in the Middle East

At the end of the 20th century, the United States birthed a new Middle East order built on realpolitik and a stable balance of power. Three decades later that order has been destroyed. America’s disastrous invasion of Iraq along with the failed Arab Spring created a vacuum that has allowed revisionist powers to extend their influence across the region.

In this groundbreaking work, renowned global strategist Mohammed Soliman argues that it is time for the United States to move beyond unsuccessful nation-building and get back to the business of order-building. To do so will require zooming out, in both geographical and historical terms, to build a new regional order across ＂West Asia＂ - from the Middle East to South Asia, connecting Europe to the Indo-Pacific via the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Working with India, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, among others, he shows how the U.S. could lock in a new balance of power in the Eurasian supercontinent to offset China and Russia’s efforts to disrupt the status quo and create a rival system. But this will require a fundamental shift in U.S. grand strategy with ＂West Asia＂ at its core.

Mohammed Soliman is the director of the Strategic Technologies and Cyber Security Program at the Middle East Institute, where he leads a global team of scholars to explore the policy challenges associated with the intersection of technology, geopolitics, and business in the Middle East and emerging markets more broadly. Mr. Soliman advises businesses and executives at McLarty Associates, a global strategy firm, on strategic and policy issues across technology, defense, finance, security, and space. He also serves as a non-resident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a visiting fellow with the National Security Program at Third Way. Mr. Soliman has previously served as a country analyst for the Peace Tech Lab at the US Institute of Peace, as a Huffington Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, and as a Junior Centennial Fellow at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.