The Middle East Is a Waste of Time

For more than a decade now, American foreign policy has been both distracted and distorted by the greater Middle East. But myriad policy choices lie between preoccupation and disengagement. Military interventions to overthrow hostile regimes or prop up friendly ones are becoming increasingly untenable and should almost always be avoided, given their high costs and uncertain payoffs, along with the existence of competing priorities at home and abroad. More discrete armed action -- whether to help maintain the free movement of oil and gas, destroy or set back programs to develop weapons of mass destruction, or attack terrorists -- should be prepared for and carried out on a case-by-case basis. Where potential partners exist, Washington should also work to build up local government capacities to maintain order and combat terrorism. U.S. officials should push governments led by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist movements to follow democratic norms and procedures; failing that, Washington should do what it can to make it difficult for such groups to consolidate their power. The staple of American involvement in this part of the world should be the provision or withholding of various forms of diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military support, to influence a country’s foreign policy and, in select cases, its domestic trajectory.