Grand strategising by Washington has been a staple of Middle East politics for more than 50 years, since the US president Dwight Eisenhower articulated a doctrine of military intervention if an allied government threatened by communist forces made a request for help. That was followed in the 1970s by the Nixon doctrine, which promised assistance to allied nations and relied on Iran and Saudi Arabia to police the Gulf, and later by the Carter doctrine, which pledged direct military intervention if vital US interests were threatened in the region. These doctrines opened the way for an ever greater US role in the region that culminated with the liberation of Kuwait in 1991.
The Gulf may be witnessing the birth pangs of another such grand strategy in response to Iran’s nuclear challenge. That much can be derived from yesterday’s statement by the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton: “If the US extends a defence umbrella over the region, if we do even more to support the military capacity of [our Arab allies] in the Gulf, it is unlikely Iran will be any stronger or safer.”
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