When it comes to building relations with the countries of the Middle East, the US authorities should take their cue from the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China. Former CIA official Paul Pillar expressed this opinion in an article published Wednesday in The National Interest magazine.
Pillar disagreed with assumptions that the Middle East is currently witnessing "a dramatic change in the patterns of cooperation and conflict between the states in the region" and countries outside of it. According to the author of the article, "the overall geopolitics of the Middle East have not changed significantly in the past few years and will not change fundamentally in the coming months." In particular, Pillar believes, there are no significant changes within the region itself. "The picture of external involvement [in the region] is also not fundamentally changing," he writes.
For example, Pillar noted, Russia, despite sanctions and the situation around Ukraine, "continues to demonstrate skill in dealing with all sides of the Middle East conflicts, from Israel to Iran." "The recent trip by [Chinese President] Xi Jinping [to Saudi Arabia] is part of China's efforts to emulate Russia's multidirectional foreign policy in the Middle East," Pillar believes.
The US, meanwhile, in its interactions with the region, "has been and remains probably the most self-limiting" country, he said. "Self-limitations have to do with [US] domestic politics and the legacy of past conflicts, and they manifest themselves primarily in unconditional support for Israel and unequivocal hostility toward Iran," the former CIA official explained.
In his view, US policy in the Middle East in the coming months and years should not be based on projections of geopolitical changes in the region. "Instead, it may involve learning lessons that could have been learned years ago. One such lesson is that to expand influence, the United States should emulate Russia, and now the PRC, in doing business with everyone, rather than viewing the Middle East as a region clearly divided into friends and enemies," Pillar believes. In addition, he believes, the US presence in the region should not take "heavily militarized forms" that entail a waste of enormous resources and possible setbacks. "China does not link its active and wide-ranging diplomacy in the Middle East to taking on the heavy burden of [providing] security in the Middle East, nor should the US do so," Pillar concluded.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
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Based on materials from TASS