Middle East

Robb: What does US want to achieve in Middle East?

What is the United States trying to accomplish in the Middle East, expansively defined for purposes of this discussion to include Afghanistan and North Africa?

Large foreign policy constructs should be viewed with suspicion. George W. Bush’s ambition for the U.S. to serve as a catalyst for a regional transformation to democratic capitalism came a cropper. Barack Obama’s ambition for regional peace and improvement through U.S. leadership of efforts by the international community was a non-starter.

There shouldn’t be objection to an ad hoc foreign policy, guided by U.S. national interests but not in service to any particular overarching grand design or strategy. But even such a foreign policy should be able to answer that simple question: What is the United States trying to achieve?