The United States has been the dominant actor in the whole Middle East after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Approximately two decades ago, I wrote an article, “Values and Interests: The Basic Elements and Principles Determining U.S. Middle East Policy” in Ortadoğu Yıllığı 2006, discussing the main determinants of American foreign policy toward the Middle East. Looking at today, it can be inferred that the U.S. policy toward the region has not changed during the different Democrat or Republican administrations. It is clear that the second Trump period will not change this traditional American perspective toward the Middle East.
The factors shaping the U.S. policy during the first decade of the 21st century still dominate the American perspective. I will discuss six of these factors in two different articles. Today, I will briefly discuss the first three factors and leave the remaining three for next week. The first factor is the isolationist and unilateralist perspective of the U.S. Isolationism is one of the most deeply rooted traditions of the U.S. political, military, social and economic policies. Despite their global hegemony, Americans still favor isolationism. Washington’s efforts to build a wall along the Mexican border, spending billions of dollars today, is a sign that the country has turned its back on the world and is trying to become an isolated castle.
Furthermore, in a different dimension of this policy of isolation, American elitism and the concept of being privileged come to the fore. Americans, who have a prosperous and powerful state, see themselves at the center of the world. They impose their own interests and problems as global interests and concerns. In a sense, they identify their own country with the world as a whole. This strengthens expansionism and one-sided international trade, and therefore American imperialism.
Traditionally, the U.S. does not want to act together with the international community and generally acts unilaterally because for decades, the U.S. has been able to do what it wanted to do both domestically and internationally on its own. For example, the U.S. implements a unilateral economic embargo against dozens of states worldwide. It does not respect the United Nations’ institutions anymore. This unilateralism is clearly seen in the U.S. policy toward the Middle East. Since it does not want to share its regional resources with other global powers, it does not seek the opinion or contribution of any other state or any international organization. For example, when it invaded Iraq in 2003, it did not feel the need to seek approval or support from either the U.N. or NATO. It is trying to be effective in the region by using its strategic partnership with Israel without considering the interests and expectations of regional and global powers.
The Greater Middle East Project is also a policy declared unilaterally by the U.S. With this project; the U.S. intended to change not only the foreign policies of the countries in the region but also their internal political, economic and social structures. It has not deemed it necessary to seek the opinion of any country in the region on this matter. Today, although the majority of the international community blames the Israeli atrocities in the Middle East, the U.S., including the government, the Congress and mainstream media, continues to provide unconditional support to Israeli genocidal policies.
Donald Trump is a typical American politician who does not consider international norms. While he claims America first, he really means any principle or norm can be instrumentalized to maximize American national interests. Transforming the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, an occupied city according to the decisions of the U.N. Security Council, or recognizing the annexation of the Golan Heights, which belongs to Syria, show that Trump undermines the UNSC decisions or principles of international law. In other words, Trump will continue to act unilaterally in the Middle East and continue to provide unconditional support to Israel. During his first term, he tried to solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem without taking the basic rights and opinions of the Palestinian side.
The second important determinant is American pride and prioritizing military action. As a result of other factors that shape its foreign policy behavior, the U.S. behaves arrogantly, thinking that they have an irresistible superiority. This understanding, shaped by arrogance and violence, is still reflected in its foreign policy. As a result of American pride, the language that the U.S. speaks the best throughout its history has been the use of power and violence. Although it has other methods to use or languages to speak, the basic American foreign policy behavior from the beginning has been the use of power.
Main political circles, such as the Democrats and the Republicans, and individuals such as Trump, think that by using more force, the world will adopt American values, and the U.S. will ensure global stability. As of today, the current global system is functioning against American hegemony. The more the U.S. global hegemony weakens, the more it becomes aggressive. Therefore, it is pursuing aggressive policies with the idea that defending globalization and liberal values is now harmful to American interests. When any regional state challenges the U.S. policies in the Middle East, Trump will try to punish them unilaterally.
The third factor is the nature of the American political system. The most important feature of the American political system is presidential imperialism. The American president, who is the head of a powerful executive branch, the head of government and the commander-in-chief, is generally able to act alone on important issues. There is no other government institution that limits the president’s power. Only Congress has the authority to “obstruct” the president in certain situations. There is no strong and institutionalized bureaucratic structure in the U.S., which has a strong society and a weak state structure. The president, together with his own appointees, makes decisions that determine the fate of the country.
Trump will exploit this dimension of the American political system. He will take important steps toward the Middle Eastern states with his own style and reflecting his political perspective. However, his style will not cause any significant deviation from the traditional American foreign policy perspective. We have seen that Trump could not implement many of his projects in the Middle East. For example, although he declared that he would withdraw the U.S. military troops from Syria, he did not take a significant step. He even did not change the representative who was appointed by the Democrat president.
Another significant dimension of the American political system is social imperialism. The phenomenon of social imperialism, which can be defined as the perception that the interests of a small group are above national interests and are against the interests of the general public, can develop much more easily in the U.S. system around the influence of the group formed by the president and his relatives. A small group that influences the president can easily direct American foreign policy. Interest groups, the military-industrial complex and lobbies are especially influential in the field of foreign policy.
While excessive expansionism provides a great deal of benefit to a small group, the cost of this policy to the general population is much less. The elite classes and large corporations in the country benefit greatly from militaristic/imperial and excessive expansionist policies. Such a state, where decisions are directed by powerful and influential cartelized groups with largely overlapping interests, is highly prone to war as an aggressive capitalist state. Similarly, these groups hijack the U.S.’s Middle Eastern foreign policy from the people and mobilize it for their own interests. The pro-Israel lobby, the Christian Zionists, the oil lobby and the arms lobby shape American foreign policy toward the Middle East. These groups are the most important reason why policies in the Middle East are being pursued that favor Israel’s interests rather than American national interests.
