Great-Power Competition and Conflict in the Middle East

📖 The Scoop

The United States is in the midst of a shift in strategic focus from countering terrorism to countering China and Russia in the Indo-Pacific and Europe. For centuries, the Middle East has served as a theater of competition between the world's great powers. Today's most prominent competitors also view the Middle East as a critical region of the world where they can cultivate access and influence. This report-part of a four-volume series-explores where and how the United States, China, and Russia are competing for influence in the Middle East; what kinds of interests they have in the region; what kinds of diplomatic, informational, military, and economic influence-seeking measures they are using; where and why competition might turn into conflict; what form that conflict might take; and what implications the findings have for the U.S. government at large, the joint force, and the Department of the Air Force in particular. This research was completed in September 2021, just after the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan and before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The report has not been subsequently revised.

Genre: History / Asia / China (fancy, right?)