What’s the Deal in the Middle East?

Last week, as the UN General Assembly opened its 2013 session, Michael Doran, an expert on the Middle East and international politics at the Brookings Institution, spoke with us about the American flip-flop on Syria’s chemical weapons, what President Obama might be thinking about Iran, Vladimir Putin’s interest in the regional turmoil—and what all of this means for Israel.

What message did Washington send in abandoning missile strikes against Syria?
American credibility has been hit across the region and around the world. Every ally of the U.S. who’s on the front lines against a malevolent actor—the South Koreans before North Korea, the smaller states of the South China Sea before China, the Israelis before Iran—is now uncertain that if push comes to shove, the U.S. will be there for them.

In the Middle East, they’re all worried about Iran and asking themselves, “Is the U.S. going to go the distance on the nuclear issue?” There was doubt all along about this, and now this doubt has increased exponentially. So the next question is: “Who around U.S. shares our concerns?” If the U.S. isn’t going to play its traditional role, the role that it’s pledged itself to play, then everybody is going to have to find different arrangements.