Washington’s Persian Gulf strategy has become a dependency trap
The U.S. has placed its Gulf partners in a dependency trap, making the region more dangerous while remaining the only power capable of defending them, and Washington must address the cost-exchange asymmetry, reduce the conditionality of its guarantee, or acknowledge that it is asking fractured, resentful partners to indefinitely underwrite a conflict they never sanctioned.
The U.S. has placed its Gulf partners in a dependency trap, making the region more dangerous while remaining the only power capable of defending them, and Washington must address the cost-exchange asymmetry, reduce the conditionality of its guarantee, or acknowledge that it is asking fractured, resentful partners to indefinitely underwrite a conflict they never sanctioned.
The U.S. has placed its Gulf partners in a dependency trap, making the region more dangerous while remaining the only power capable of defending them, and Washington must address the cost-exchange asymmetry, reduce the conditionality of its guarantee, or acknowledge that it is asking fractured, resentful partners to indefinitely underwrite a conflict they never sanctioned.
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