Paper Name: “United States of America in the Transforming Global
Order”.
Q.1. What is the US policy in the Middle East? Should there be a rethinking in
the foreign policy of US towards Middle East?
Ans: - The United States of America since World War II has not only promoted
democracy and prosperity, and opposed dictatorships and human rights abuses,
across the globe through its economic, diplomatic, and military engagement.
Involvement of US in the Middle East:
Over the past decade, the Middle East has seen major transformations, including
popular uprisings, civil and armed conflict, and humanitarian emergencies. The
region also faces a number of other important challenges, ranging from effective
governance to religious pluralism to geopolitical rivalries.
Historical context:
US involvement with the Middle East was relatively limited until the mid-1900s;
prior to this time, European powers built relations in the Middle East, particularly
through the League of Nations after World War I. During the 1950s, the Cold War
heightened concern about the Middle East. In 1965, U.S. policy towards the
region changed, reflected in more lenient immigration laws as people fled political
crises in Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, and Afghanistan in the 1970s.
Iran & Lebanon
In the 1940s, British and Soviet troops occupied Iran. A failed communist plot in
1949 to overthrow the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlevi was followed by tensions.
Based on fears of a communist takeover, a joint British-American operation in
1953 helped returned the Shah to power.
During the mid-2000s, the U.S. froze Iranian assets and severed diplomatic ties.
Tensions remained and escalated amidst sanctions and mistrust of Iran’s uranium
enrichment in 2013, Iranian President Rouhani and President Obama held the first
phone conversation between the two countries since 1979 discussing for the
eventual Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a controversial agreement
“under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear work in return for limited sanctions
relief.” The U.S., Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia reached the
agreement in July 2015. The U.S. withdrew in May 2018.
The U.S. first established diplomatic relations in Lebanon in the early 1800s,
when Lebanon was part of the Ottoman Empire. Relations were reestablished
after World War I and strengthened in 1944 following official recognition of
Lebanon’s independence.
By the 1960s, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was one of the largest in the Middle East.
This changed during Lebanon’s civil war. In 1983, over 200 American marines,
sailors, and soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber, and two attacks on the U.S.
Embassy in 1983 and 1984 forced it to close. It reopened in 1990.
During the 1980s wars, a guerrilla group evolved into a major political party and
military force known today as Hezbollah, which receives significant funding from
Iran. Hezbollah’s military involvement in Syria with its close ally Iran “poses a
growing asymmetric threat to the United States, Israel, Jordan, and other
countries in the region” and complicates its position in Lebanon.
Israel and Palestine
In May of 1948, the UN’s Resolution 181 divided the former British Mandate into
Jewish and Arab states, and the city of Jerusalem remained under international
control. The U.S. immediately recognized the State of Israel, but the “resolution
sparked conflict between Jewish and Arab groups within Palestine,” leading to
the Arab-Israeli War of 1948.
Since the 1990s, the U.S. has engaged in helping facilitate a solution to the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict. In 1994, Israel agreed with the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) to allow a Palestinian Authority (PA) limited rule over Gaza and
certain areas of the West Bank, where the majority of Palestinians live. The PA
still exercises this limited rule over areas of the West Bank, although Hamas, “a
U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization supported in part by Iran,” has had
de facto control over Gaza since 2007. Conflict between Hamas and Israel keeps
tensions high.
Saudi Arabia, Yemen& Afghanistan:
The U.S. founded the Arabian American Oil company after oil was discovered in
Saudi Arabia in 1938. In 1981, in retaliation for U.S. support of Israel during
the Yom Kippur War, Saudi Arabia participated in an oil boycott aimed at the U.S.
and other Western nations.
Despite these tensions, Saudi Arabia remained the primary U.S. ally in the region
after Iran’s 1979 Revolution. In 1990, after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia’s King Fahd invited U.S. troops to use Saudi Arabia as a base for operations
against Iraq.
Saudi Arabia has also long been the top destination for U.S. defense sales. In
recent years, many debate the continued sale of arms to Saudi Arabia since the
nation intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015. Additionally, dissidents and
activists have been arrested, prompting human rights criticisms.
The U.S. backed the 2013 UN-sponsored National Dialogue Conference “to
formulate a new constitution agreeable to Yemen’s many factions,” but the
conference ended “after delegates couldn’t resolve disputes over the distribution
of power” and the interim government resigned under pressure after Houthi
rebels seized power in September of 2014, setting off a civil war that has
devastated the country and its people.
The military split between the Houthis (with support from Iran) and the
government forces (with support from Saudi Arabia). The U.S. backs the Saudi-led
coalition.
In 1973, a military coup overthrew the country’s last king, brought the People’s
Democratic Party of Afghanistan to power, and established the Republic of
Afghanistan..
In 1979, the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan was killed, and the U.S. stopped
sending assistance to Afghanistan. The U.S. signed peace accords with Pakistan,
Afghanistan, and the Soviet Union in 1989, guaranteeing Afghan independence
and the withdrawal of Soviet troops, but disputes between rival factions
remained unresolved. In 1995, the newly formed Islamic militia, the Taliban which
ruled according to traditional Islamic values, rose to power with promises of
peace whose authority was not recognize by the .
In the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. military began a campaign against
the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The U.S. military maintained a presence
in Afghanistan from 2001 and participated in a bilateral counterterrorism mission
with Afghan forces. Peace talks were slow and plagued by continuous setbacks,
and the Taliban eventually regained control of Afghanistan in the wake of U.S.
troop withdrawal in August, 2021.
Kuwait, Iran & Syria
In August of 1990, Saddam Hussein led the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, instigating
the Persian Gulf War. The U.S., along with Japan, the former Soviet Union, and
most of Europe and the Middle East condemned the attack and joined to form a
coalition. Operation Desert Storm brought an end to the war in March of 1991,
when Kuwait was liberated.
At the end of the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi forces surrendered, but Saddam Hussein
did not relinquish power. In 1998, Sadam Hussein refused to cooperate with UN
inspectors in Iraq to survey weapons programs. In March of 2003, the US-led
coalition invaded Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Forces captured Saddam
Hussein by December of 2003, and remained in the country to bring stability to
Iraq. The final U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq in December 2011.
Fighting ensued quickly after troops withdrew, leaving a power vacuum in Iraq. In
2014, the al-Qaeda splinter group, ISIS, took control of Iraqi and Syrian territory
and declared itself a caliphate. The territorial caliphate was declared defeated in
March of 2019, but the group is still active and has claimed responsibility for
terrorist attacks in the Middle East and around the world.
Syria has been on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terror since the list’s origin in
1979, based on “its continuing policies in supporting terrorism, its former
occupation of Lebanon, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and missile
programs, and undermining U.S. and international efforts to stabilize Iraq.” In
2011, the Assad regime’s brutality in response to protests sparked a civil war that
has lasted more than seven years, and has been further complicated by the 2014
rise of ISIS. Along with the international community, the U.S. government has
provided humanitarian and stabilization assistance to the displaced population
and the Syrian opposition.
Need for rethinking of foreign policy:
The United States has adopted a security-centric approach in its policy toward the
Middle East. Violence and instability continue to surge in the region due to
unaddressed political, economic, and human rights grievances. This has hampered
US efforts to achieve its security goals in a sustainable way in the region. It is in
the United States’ interest to rethink its policy for the region and prioritize human
rights as a national security imperative. The main threats to regional security and
stability [in the Middle East] are internal, stemming from state weakness and
dysfunctional governance; U.S. military forces are ill-suited to address these
sources of conflict, this means relying more on regional partners to stabilize the
region may be difficult, as many say the presence of U.S. forces has been “an
insurance policy for maintaining a modicum of stability.”
