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US dominance in Middle East has ended: Haas
The age of US dominance in the Middle East has ended and a new era in the modern history of the region has begun, one in which Washington will have to rely more on diplomacy than military might to influence events, according to Richard N Haas, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Writing in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, he argues, Visions of a new, Europe-like region - peaceful, prosperous, democratic - will not be realised. Much more likely is the emergence of a new Middle East that will cause great harm to itself, the United States, and the world. Shaping the new Middle East from the outside will be exceedingly difficult, but that, along with managing a dynamic Asia, will be the primary challenge of US foreign policy for decades to come. Haas believes that the Bush administrations decision to attack Iraq in 2003 and its conduct of the operation and resulting occupation was one of the factors that ushered in a new era in the region. One casualty of the war has been a Sunni-dominated Iraq, which was strong enough and motivated enough to balance Shiite Iran. Sunni-Shiite tensions, dormant for a while, have come to the surface in Iraq and throughout the region. Terrorists have gained a base in Iraq and developed there a new set of techniques to export. Throughout much of the region, democracy has become associated with the loss of public order and the end of Sunni primacy. Anti-American sentiment has been reinforced. And by tying down a huge portion of the US military, the war has reduced US leverage worldwide. Posted by: Fred 2006-10-31 |
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