New Middle East Cold War
F. Gregory Gause, III

April 11, 2016

The Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) is hosting a talk by Professor Gregory Gause, entitled “New Middle East Cold War.” Following the lecture there will be a question and answer session. This is open to the Laboratory.

From Syria and Iraq to Libya and Yemen, the Middle East is once again rife with conflict. Much of the fighting is along sectarian lines, but can it really be explained simply as a “Sunni versus Shia” battle? What explains this upsurge in violence across the region? And what role can or should the United States play? The better way to frame the current regional crisis in the Middle East is as a new, regional cold war in which Iran and Saudi Arabia compete for power and influence. Rather than stemming from sectarian rivalry, this new Middle East cold war results from the weakening of Arab states and the creation of domestic political vacuums into which local actors invite external support. Conventional military power is not as useful in this regional competition as transnational ideological and political connections that resonate with key domestic players. The best way to defuse the conflicts is to reconstruct stable political orders that can limit external meddling. That, of course, is much easier said than done. The U.S. is limited in what it can do to build the kind of strong states necessary to end this regional crisis. It should take a modest approach focused on supporting the states that actually govern, acting multilaterally, and remembering that core U.S. interests have yet to be directly threatened.

Professor Gregory Gause served previously on the faculties of the University of Vermont (1995-2014) and Columbia University (1987-1995) and was Fellow for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York (1993-1994). During the 2009-10 academic year he was Kuwait Foundation Visiting Professor of International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. In spring 2009 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the American University in Kuwait. In spring 2010 he was a research fellow at the King Faisal Center for Islamic Studies and Research in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. From 2012 to 2015 he was a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Doha Center.

New Middle East Cold War

The Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) sponsored this seminar entitled "The New Middle East Cold War" on April 11, 2016, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The seminar was presented by Dr. F. Gregory Gause of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.

LLNL-VIDEO-692160

Presentation available soon.