After the demise of the USSR in 1991, the United States of America, emerged as a solo global power to influence world politics, but surprisingly American has been unsuccessful to dominate the Middle East despite victory in the Gulf war of 1990. The Washington inability to solve region conflict such as Arab-Israel and Palestine-Israel, regardless of favorable circumstances during the Clinton administration. The post-9/11 era was pure turmoil for US in Middle East, failed occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and failure of Arab-Spring as political strategy raised question on the American hegemony in Middle East. The fact is that, the US was never ever a hegemonic state in the Middle East, the concept of US hegemony was represented by the international relations Scholars, those weren’t aware of the “hegemonic stability theory”. In hegemonic stability theory, there is no subordinate actor to challenge Hegemonic power, if such actor challenge that would be suicide mission. But, we have seen the so-called hegemonic US has been challenged by different actors on every level of regional politics in Middle East. To understand the hegemonic stability, the most distinguished IR scholar Robert Gilpin stated that, “the hegemony of any state ensured an international system of relative peace and security”, in the light of this principle, The us failed as a hegemonic state in the Middle East, because as per Benjamin Miller understanding, “an outside dominant power like U.S in the Middle East, cannot resolve nation-to-nation disputes that lead to regional wars, but It can only enforce “cold peace” on a region”. In the era of supposed American hegemony, the Middle East has gone through from a lot of violence and instability. The U.S did not have any legitimacy of the order that the hegemon state seeks to impose to protect its status in the region. The United States of America has military might and fiancé to influence the Middle East politics but it does not have the legitimacy to rule the region by political will. In the context of hegemonic legitimacy, the IR scholar, John Ikenberry argues that, the material power is one of the elements of a hegemonic order that should be accomplished by “legitimacy of the rules and institution of the order” and it also has ability to solve the problems of the subordinate states”. There is no doubt that U.S is the most cherished state in the Middle East, especially in the Gulf but It does not have the statuesque to take decisions on the behalf of the Middle East.
Modern scholars are using the phrase, “The Empire that Ate itself” for America in the international system, the most prominent reason behind this phrase is that, American is a permanent war economy, a complex system in which conflict is not an instrument of policy but policy itself that endorses the existing Military Industrial Complex and irrational strategies to seek more power, economy and political influence by expansion of armed conflicts. The United States spends billions of dollars on the military by involving defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, that nexus of Military Industrial Complex and people in Pentagon facilitate influence to draft defense policy of the most democratic nation in the world. This is the same system that created the confrontation with Iran without understanding the possible means in practice and strategic Interest and expected outcomes. The lobbying for activation of the conflict in the Middle East, was in the hand of the most powerful and institutional body in the history of democratic governance, which emphasized that war is necessary, winnable and profitable for the U.S.
On the other hand, the emergence of China as a global power especially their involvement in Middle Eastern politics put nail in the coffin of American hegemony in the region. China is taking the Middle East as an economic opportunity to expand its wings, in this regard, China put efforts to meditate between Iran and Saudi Arabia and the PLO and Hamas. Ironically, China is establishing peace in the Middle East without any military presence. Russia remains a key player in the Middle East and uses its old diplomatic relations to influence regional players. For a few years, Russia has been busy in its European theater but still importing arms from Iran to sustain its military operations. Coming to the conclusion, in the last two decades, U.S had all possible resources to sustain its so-called hegemony or popularity in the Middle East, but terribly went wrong because of its political choices and means to pursue them. The nexus between the Military Industrial Complex, the American Israel Public Affairs committee and allied organization that put U.S in a position where nothing has been left to bet on in future.In a recent Conflict with Iran, the world has seen, how U.S failed to achieve the trust of its partners in Europe and beyond. In the middle of War, the U.S showed desperation and anxiousness for ceasefire by claiming victory over Iran. The U.S is behaving like a fragile state that is run by some school kids. There is a lake of solid stance and commitment on a diplomatic level, Clueless military operational and strategy, even close friends are hesitant to take side in the conflict. This kind of approaches does not advisable a nation that has been pulling the strings of world politics from decades.
By: Zeshan Nawaz
