Diplomacy, Middle East, Power & Security, United States Watch Now: From Military Might to Strategic Partnerships: The U.S. in the Middle East

October 5, 2021
By Perry World House

Since the 9/11 attacks, the United States has pursued a policy of aggressively combatting terrorism in the Middle East, while attempting to bring political stability to the region at the same time. Two decades on, the region continues to see violence, conflict, and uncertainty in countries like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen, along with growing economic difficulties and the increasingly evident impacts of climate change. President Biden has now withdrawn U.S. forces from Afghanistan, which could signal a broader shift in foreign policy, military, and economic strategy away from the Middle East and towards the Asia-Pacific. What would the implications of this new policy direction be, and how would it affect relations with key partners like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and Israel? How will the U.S. tackle major issues in the region, like Iran’s nuclear weapons program?

Perry World House and Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies hosted a panel of former U.S. Ambassadors in the region to discuss these questions and more. Moderated by Ambassador Joseph W. Westphal, Senior Global Fellow at the Lauder Institute, the panel featured Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, senior fellow at the Jackson Institute at Yale; Ambassador William Roebuck, Executive Vice President of The Arab Gulf States Institute; and Ambassador Douglas A. Silliman, President and CEO of the Arab Gulf States Institute.

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