Biden Isn’t Ignoring the Middle East, and That’s Good
Striking Iran, sanctioning Saudi Arabia, convening on Afghanistan — who said the new administration was going to focus inward?
Staying power.
Photographer: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
With every recent presidency, the perceived urgency of disentangling the U.S. from the Middle East has risen in tandem with the perceived severity of threats in other theaters. For Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and now Joe Biden, however, regional realities have remained stubbornly at odds with global strategy.
Today, Biden’s administration aims to stabilize U.S. policy in the Middle East (if not to stabilize the region itself) so it can focus on a Chinese challenge that will not wait. But across a clutch of key issues — involving Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia, particularly — the administration may face a longer, harder slog.