The future of the US posture in the Gulf

Описание: The US maintains a significant military presence across the Gulf region, designed to deter Iran, reassure Gulf partners, facilitate US counter-terrorism operations, sustain US deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan and secure maritime sea-lanes. This posture, which has served as the keystone of the Gulf security architecture for years, has become increasingly costly for the US, in terms of financial cost, political exposure and strategic rationale.

Emile Hokayem, Daniel Benaim, Kirsten Fontenrose and Becca Wasser discuss the prospects for a rethinking of the US posture after the 2020 presidential elections and analyse if progress on defence cooperation among Gulf states could facilitate US retrenchment or reduce their reliance on the US.