With little fanfare, this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Carter Doctrine, when President Jimmy Carter warned against “outside” control of the oil-rich Persian Gulf. The U.S. effectively enforced an implicit corollary to that doctrine—to prevent control by a regional power—in the Iraq wars of 1991 and 2003. But today, the Carter Doctrine must make a powerful and swift return: Iran’s nuclear ambitions threaten the Gulf, posing perhaps the greatest immediate threat to U.S. national security and a great threat to U.S. economic interests by provoking a long-term spike in oil prices.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter came into office declaring the energy challenge the “moral equivalent of war.” He eventually came to designate energy supply as a cause for an actual war. Events in late 1979 conspired to threaten the free flow of oil in the Persian Gulf: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became supreme leader of the new Islamic Republic of Iran; militants took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran, seizing 53 hostages; armed radicals opposed to the Saudi regime stormed the Great Mosque in Mecca; and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Iran’s eastern neighbor, bringing Russia closer to its long-held desire to reach the Persian Gulf. The next year, Carter, perceived weak internationally, dramatically expanded the perimeter of the U.S. defensive shield by declaring: “Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”
Read Full Article »