Biden Needs a Middle East Strategy to Avoid New Crises

Aug 10, 2021
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Also published in The Hill
Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Saudi Arabia
About the Authors
Kenneth Pollack

Kenneth Pollack is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Ambassador Dennis Ross
Dennis Ross

Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama, is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute.

Articles & Testimony

To dispel confusion among America’s partners and better counter its adversaries, the administration will have to do a better job of integrating its country-specific strategies into an overarching approach for accomplishing larger goals.

Despite the necessity of focusing on domestic affairs first and great-power relations second, the Biden administration has so far managed to keep the Middle Eastern pot from boiling over. Yet while it has reacted well to the regional challenges it has been hit with, the Biden team still lacks a clear region-wide strategy that our friends and partners understand. Over the past two months, between the two of us, we have traveled to Iraq, Israel and Saudi Arabia and met with some of the senior-most leaders in all three countries. Everywhere, we have encountered both hope and doubts about the administration’s approach. The one constant we encountered, however, was confusion about what the administration is seeking to achieve...

Read the full article on the Hill website.

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