(Why) Does The United States Need Europe in the Middle East?
I was reading an article written by Amr Yossef and Sergio Fabbrini in European Political Science discussing why Barack Obama needs European support in the ME. Such formulation of the question already presupposes that the United States needs European support, but why is European support needed in the ME?
By unilaterally militarily invading Iraq, the United States distanced itself not only from the regional Islamic world, but also from the EU (I remember public demonstrations in Helsinki against the Iraq invasion from the time I studied at the University of Helsinki). It has been alleged that election of Barack Hussein Obama with his Islamic roots as President of the United States, significantly improved the perception of the United States. Setting aside the question, whether the result of the elections that way was determined before the elections, I would discuss in the light of the States’ foreign policy toward Libya what did the elections actually change in the United States’ ME politics?
In the 4 June 2009 speech at Cairo, Barack Hussein Obama stressed diplomacy and multilateralism in the ME instead of military force.
If one analyses the United States’ politics in the ME through the political structure of the ME, where the most important areas have been considered the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, and Iran’s nuclear ambitions, one may first observe that the United States has not been able to solve the conflicts and need support of the EU for balancing the regional constraints.
To be continued …
