The Future of US Presence in West Asia

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Master of Regional Studies, Yazd University

2 Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Law and Political Science, Yazd University

Abstract

West Asia is geopolitically, geostrategically and geoeconomically of particular importance to the great powers; hence the history of the last century has had many ups and downs. The present study seeks to answer the question by means of a combination of documentary research and interviewing tools, what will be the future US strategy in West Asia, according to US national security documents and experts. To answer this question, three scenarios have been examined: "persistence in West Asia", "decline in West Asia", and "complete withdrawal from West Asia". A review of US foreign policy and national security documents shows that the West's new West Asian strategy has changed and is no longer willing to focus more on the region as it has in the past, which means the decline of West Asia's importance to the US and its willingness to use it. The strategy of "remote management" and "no direct intervention" is in the scenario of "reducing presence in West Asia". Whereas the results obtained through semi-structured interviews with 20 US experts revealed that the documentary study was inadequate. 55 percent of the respondents voted for the continuation of the status quo and the presence of the United States, the "continuity of presence in West Asia" scenario. Importantly, almost all interviewees who considered the presence scenario to be the most likely scenario considered it impossible to continue past costly and agreed to change the way the US presence in the region was.

Keywords

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History

  • Receive Date: 09 May 2018
  • Revise Date: 13 January 2019
  • Accept Date: 19 September 2018

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