Related Post
Since the United States of America appeared on the international stage – following the end of World War II as the most powerful country in the world – its great strategy has been to achieve and continue its global hegemony, and to maintain the balance of power between it and any global or regional competitor in its great favor.
With the rise of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1940s – and for the four decades that followed as a fierce and stubborn competitor to America in Europe and around the world – the American strategy was to create military and political alliances and economic, cultural and societal institutions to contain it and fight the ideology that it represents and spreads around the world, in light of the strategic and ideological competition between it and The Western camp is led by it, as Cold War specialists call it.
The United States of America achieved its hegemony in the Western Hemisphere at the end of the nineteenth century, in what was known as the Monroe Doctrine, named after the fifth American president in 1823, which stipulated that no military presence of any global powers would be allowed in the Western Hemisphere, until they became monopolistic. America with its hegemony in what it considered its rear region.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, America was able to liquidate all military bases in the Western Hemisphere, and also ended the armed presence of the various European powers. In addition, America has imposed a ban on countries in the region not to participate in any military alliances with any global powers. Here, America’s behavior can be understood after it discovered Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuban soil in October 1962, when it threatened an unlimited, all-out war, had it not been for the agreement to withdraw these missiles in exchange for the withdrawal of American nuclear missiles from Turkey.
As for the strategic level, since the middle of the twentieth century, the United States has considered that there are three vital regions around the world in which its major interests require it to be strongly present, and to have its political interest and military presence in order to maintain its position not only as a superpower, but also as the most important global power that controls the joints and institutions. The international system that it supervises and leads.
These three areas are:
- Europe, and the Arabian Gulf region in particular
- And the Middle East in general
- and the East and Southeast Asia region.
Interest in the European and East Asian regions is related to the presence of other great powers competing with the United States, as America does not want these powers (Russia in Europe and China in East Asia) to be dominant in its region so as not to compete with them in other places around the world.
As for the Gulf region, it is considered a very strategic and vital region. Because it is an area that accumulates oil wealth in the world, which is the most important commodity in the global economy, the one who controls it can control the most important aspects of this economy.
America’s strategy after the Russian invasion was to exhaust the growing Russian power and isolate it through the massive support it provided to Ukraine. In the hope that this war will weaken Russia, or even that its political system will be changed to join the American-dominated European regional system.
Moreover, America has insisted that the currency in which this global strategic commodity is sold – since the Kissinger-King Faisal agreement in 1974 as a result of protectionism – be the dollar, or what is known as the petrodollar. This ensures the stability of the American currency and its global dominance as a reserve currency for the global economy, as it currently represents about 60% of the volume of global trade between countries, and more than 80% of the financial exchange market, despite the lack of a real cover for this currency after America removed the dollar from Gold in 1971. This link between the dollar and oil is one of the American global political pillars on which the stability of the American economy depends greatly, and which enhances the strategic importance of the Gulf region.
About three decades ago, the size of the Chinese economy relative to the American economy did not exceed 7%, while it is now equivalent to about 70% of the size of annual American output. This great growth and enormous economic power of China makes it a strong competitor and a fierce rival to the United States not only on the economic level, but also on the two levels: strategic and military, which makes – from the American point of view – China become dominant in its region, which enables it to threaten not only America’s interests are in this vital region, but it is also possible for it to compete and compete with America in other regions around the world.
Between the fall and disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 and for about a quarter of a century, the world was unipolar, with the United States alone leading the world, imposing its hegemony by determining its trends, deciding its rules, leading its policies, and creating its institutions.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001 – and in the absence of any international or regional competitor – the United States decided to invade the Gulf, the Middle East, and the Islamic world. Until it rearranged its regime through military invasion and social engineering in Afghanistan and Iraq in the hope that these experiences would be repeated in the rest of the countries of the region, but its abject failure to achieve any achievement in these two countries, and even its humiliating withdrawal from both of them made it reconsider its calculations, especially in light of China’s rapid rise, while it wasted valuable time on losing bets. Therefore, the United States decided to reposition itself so that it could devote itself to challenging China’s rapid rise in order to encircle and contain it by establishing regional military and economic alliances. In order to hinder or slow down its economic growth and military progress.
As for Europe, the United States was able – in light of Russian weakness after the collapse of the Soviet Union – to expand NATO over three decades, as the number of countries belonging to this military alliance increased from 16 members to 30. The American insistence on expanding this alliance – to even include Ukraine Russia is being surrounded and its regional power and influence are being limited – leading to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to confront this threat, which could ravage Russia’s regional role, or even its political system in light of Western hegemony and American expansion in Eastern Europe.
Therefore, America’s strategy after the Russian invasion was to exhaust the growing Russian power and isolate it through the massive support it provided to Ukraine. In the hope that this war will weaken Russia, or even that its political system will be changed to join the American-dominated European regional system. Despite the faltering of this American strategy, the current administration still insists on it, despite the failure of the Ukrainian forces to achieve any military victories or breakthroughs.
As for the strategic situation in the Middle East and Gulf region, America considers that the most important threats to its interests and to the regional order that it dominates and controls to a large extent are in the policies of Iran and its allies in the region, not only in the growth of its military and technological capabilities that it has acquired since the end of the Iraq war. Iranian policy for more than three decades, but also due to the ability of Iranian policy to make breakthroughs in more than one region, especially at the level of the conflict with the Zionist entity in Palestine and Lebanon, in addition to its increasing influence in Iraq, Syria and Yemen and its reconciliatory policies with the Gulf states.
In light of these challenges and with the United States’ decision to reduce its direct military presence in the region in order to devote itself to the Chinese challenge in East and Southeast Asia, America wanted to reorganize the region to entrust regional powers to confront Iranian influence and its hostile policies and maintain regional stability to ensure American strategic and economic interests.
The regional system that America wanted to establish in the Middle East was, in essence, based on the alliance between the Israeli entity – the strategic ally and the largest partner in preserving American strategic interests – and the Arab regimes allied with America, especially Egypt, Jordan, the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and other countries.
Through a reckless policy, America is trying to restore the collapsed image of the crisis-ridden Israeli entity, which it would have relied on to maintain the security of the region and its strategic interests after reducing its direct military presence.
The ruling American political and military elite was aware of the difficulty of establishing an alliance between the Zionist entity and the Arab regimes allied with it without finding a settlement for the Palestinian issue through the so-called two-state solution. However, Israeli intransigence, arrogance, and the dominance of the extreme right – not only over Israeli policy but also over the ruling American elites – He overthrew all American attempts to find a political settlement for the Palestinian issue, which led to accepting its transcendence and identification with Israeli policy, which called for managing the crisis instead of resolving it.
Since the end of the 1970s, America has been able to penetrate the regional Arab system by arranging “peace” treaties with various Arab regimes that guarantee the continuation of the hegemony of the Hebrew state and the overthrow of Arab national security, starting with the peace treaty with Egypt (1979), and continuing through the Wadi Araba Agreement with Jordan. (1994), and up to the Abraham Accords with the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco in (2019) and (2020).
The current American administration wanted to crown the normalization agreements between the Zionist entity and the Arab regimes allied with America through a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and the Zionist entity next year. In order to guarantee its strategic interests and preserve its economic interests by besieging and containing forces hostile to it and the Zionist entity. This strategy would have entrusted the Israeli entity and the Arab regimes normalized with it with maintaining regional security, so that America could devote itself to the Chinese challenge in East Asia and around the world.
The October 7 attack came to undermine this strategy after its impressive results in terms of planning and implementation undermined the prestige and image of the Israeli army, which was claiming to be invincible, and humiliated its intelligence services, which were pretending to dominate the regional security system.
Hence the rapid and unlimited American support for the Zionist entity, which will inevitably cast doubt not only on its credibility before the Arab and Islamic masses, but also on the shaking of its image around the world. Through a reckless policy, America is trying to restore the collapsed image of the crisis-ridden Israeli entity, which it would have relied on to maintain the security of the region and its strategic interests after reducing its direct military presence.
Therefore, the United States considers that defeating and crushing the resistance in Gaza is the necessary prelude to restoring this alliance that it wanted to create in the region. As a result of its full support for the brutal Israeli bombing, genocide, and destruction that it is carrying out against the people and city of Gaza, America has abandoned all the slogans that it raised and the principles that it was calling for around the world, and thus it has risked its reputation and position by revealing its true face before its people and the peoples of the world, and demonstrated its role. As an accomplice in all Israeli war crimes.
This biased and reckless policy – taken by the United States in its quest to preserve its interests, and to restore the military deterrence of the Israeli army, which was publicly humiliated in front of its people and regional countries, and in order to assert the hegemony of the Zionist entity over the countries of the region – will have disastrous results, not only on its prestige. Its collapsed image before the peoples of the region, but also its economic and strategic interests. Rather, it will have dire consequences for the future of the Zionist entity itself, which it is trying to save and protect. In addition, this policy will hinder its ability to turn towards East Asia to meet the Chinese challenge. In conclusion; This floundering policy will have a direct impact on the regional security system and the future of the Arab regimes allied with America after these regimes were exposed to their people and their weakness and inability were proven, and some of them even complicit in the greatest war crimes in history.
