The Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) is a collaborative network that aims to increase the impact of political scientists specializing in the study of the Middle East in the public sphere and in the academic community. POMEPS, directed by Mershon Visiting Scholar Marc Lynch, is based at the Institute for Middle East Studies at the George Washington University and is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.
In September 2024, POMEPS and the Mershon Center for International Studies at the Ohio State University convened a workshop with regional experts and international relations theorists to debate the nature of American primacy in the Middle East. The papers in this collection range widely over theoretical approaches and empirical examples to bring out the assumptions and implications of different perspectives. The discussions were shaped by the shadow of Israel’s war on Gaza, in all of its moral and strategic dimensions, with sharp disagreements over the extent to which this represented a fundamental break with or continuity with prior trajectories. We are delighted to present POMEPS Studies 54: Debating American Primacy in the Middle East and hope that it helps to reframe and sharpen the critical ongoing debates about US foreign policy, global order, and the Middle East.
Table of contents:
- Introduction: Debating American Primacy in the Middle East
Marc Lynch - U.S. Strategy in the Middle East as a 21st Century Cold War Gains Steam
Richard K. Herrmann, The Ohio State University - Between pragmatism and ideology: Rethinking China-MENA relations in the time of crises
Lina Benabdallah, Wake Forest University - Kabul, Ukraine, Gaza–evolving trajectories in U.S.-Gulf security trajectories (and perceptions)
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy - American Order: Palestine and Authoritarianism in the Arab World
Dana El Kurd, University of Richmond - The Gulf States in the Multipolar Transition
Elham Fakhro, Harvard Kennedy School and Peter Salisbury, Columbia University - Hegemony, Unipolarity and American Failure in the Middle East
F. Gregory Gause III, Texas A&M University - Legitimation and hypocrisy in Gaza: implications for the LIO
Stacie Goddard, Wellesley College - Vegas Rules Don’t Apply: Why the United States is Continually Drawn to Engage in the Middle East
Peter R. Mansoor, The Ohio State University - Security Contra Development: The US-Jordan Relationship
Pete W. Moore, Case Western Reserve University - US Primacy and the New Hegemony Studies
Daniel Nexon, Georgetown University - Forever War for Profit: The United States, Israel/Palestine, and the Global Corporate Security Econom
Zaynab Quadri, Yale University - Regional Alliances in the Middle East from the Arab Spring to the Gaza War
Curtis R. Ryan, Appalachian State University