GREAT POWER COMPETITION, MIDDLE EAST

The war raging since Saturday’s attack on Israel by militants from Gaza – in which militants killed 1,300 Israelis and took some 150 as hostages.

Israel has retaliated by putting the Gaza Strip under siege, cutting off access to food, water, fuel, and electricity for its 2.3 million residents. It’s also carrying out heavy bombardments across the territory, killing at least 1,350 people and internally displacing hundreds of thousands of others.

The Age of Great-Power Distraction, Foreign Affairs

Vacuums of power are proliferating in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East, and the South Caucasus, old conflicts, some of which had been dormant, are rekindling into new crises. China, Europe, Russia, and the United States will undoubtedly have a role to play in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Long a central arena for great-power competition, the Middle East may represent something new. 

In the coming months, the many parties affected by the Israel-Hamas war will look to the great powers for leadership. But they are likely to find these powers inadequate to the crisis. 

Only the United States is capable of being a more decisive actor. The United States remains the world’s preeminent great power. Its combined strategic assets, from its economy to its intelligence institutions to its military, are unparalleled. Israel’s war with Hamas will likely draw the United States back into the troubled region.