Renewed Middle East instability derailed the US pivot to Asia

Evidence

The change brought great benefits and will no doubt bring others in the course of time; but it would be a piece of myopic self-conceit on our part to deny that it has also done great damage and is the chief cause of the political and social formlessness, instability, and irresponsibility that bedevil the public life of the Middle East. In our own day the crisis has come to a head, and the anger that it engenders is directed outward, against the West—the millennial adversary and also the place in which these devastating changes had their origin. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1193 (#complicates, via linked claim)

One can debate whether this history since 1967 constitutes an “imperial” or “hegemonic” posture of the United States concerning the Middle East. (I believe it to be imperialism, American style.) But since the terrorist attacks of 2001, things have taken a decidedly imperial turn, culminating now in the direct military occupation of a major Arab country, an adventure labeled a “colonial war in the postcolonial age,” by former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. And the political theorists of empire have repeatedly cautioned that the consequences of imperialism can reach far beyond the colony. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 990 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: US foreign policy pivots were derailed by Middle East crises.; Western impact caused Middle East political formlessness and instability — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1193; A major shift in US policy and attitudes toward the Middle East is underway — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1678 (+15 more)

Broader Connections

• US foreign policy pivots were derailed by Middle East crises. #corroborates (1.00)
• Western impact caused Middle East political formlessness and instability #complicates (0.85) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1193
• US posture in the Middle East turned openly imperial after the 2001 attacks #complicates (0.80) — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 990
• A major shift in US policy and attitudes toward the Middle East is underway #complicates (0.75) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1678
• The U.S. faces a pressured binary choice between dominating or abandoning the Middle East. #complicates (0.70) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1682
• American concessions to Asian states were read as weakness and exploited #complicates (0.70) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 610
• Cold War alignment masked U.S.-Asian civilizational conflicts that resurfaced after 1991 #complicates (0.70) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 603
• Cold War US hegemony in the Middle East collided with nationalist independence movements #complicates (0.70) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 638
• Western decline paused while America replaced Europe as its power center #complicates (0.70)
• Chinese hegemony in East Asia comes at the cost of American influence #complicates (0.70) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 650
• Middle Eastern leaders misread the US as a reincarnated British Empire. #complicates (0.70) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1666
• China’s global policy expansion preceded its Middle East engagement #complicates (0.70) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1182
• US Middle East alliances have repeatedly thwarted democracy #complicates (0.70) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 297
• Great-power rivalry over the declining Ottoman Empire shaped Middle East geopolitics #complicates (0.70) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 138
• Postwar Middle Eastern republics often masked continued dynastic dominance #complicates (0.70)