IAFF 6378 US Foreign Policy in the Middle East
Charles Dunne
The United States has been the most powerful external actor in the
Middle East and North Africa for much of the last 70 years,
defending and advancing what generations of US policymakers
have identified as vital national interests. Today, however, most
Americans, and even the American government itself, seem to have
grown weary of wars, crises, and expensive military commitments in
the region. Iraq, Afghanistan, and the intractable Arab-Israeli peace
process—not to mention the perception of numerous American
policy failures—all have led successive US administrations to the
conclusion that the United States should pare its involvement and
focus its attention elsewhere. But is this the right course of action?
When US attention lapses, emergencies in the region have a way of
drawing America back in. It’s undoubtedly an arena of competing
interests involving the United States, Russia and China, which
increasingly bears implications for US global policy. Taught from a
practitioner’s viewpoint, this course will focus on the history of and
present-day rationale for US engagement in the region; we will have
active class discussions on current developments, debate opposing
views, and hold a simulation that will pull these strands together in a
policymaking exercise with real-world implications. At the end of the
course, you’ll know what the US is doing there and why it matters.