The Biden administration recently released its National Security Strategy (NSS). Experts say that studying the strategy and considering U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia may leave some to expect a confident reimagining of American foreign policy in the Middle East.
But experts have said there is a continued unwillingness to reimagine regional relationships dominated by security and energy concerns.
While this NSS is brand new, much of the logic is not: countering the autocracy of our rivals requires tolerating it in our Middle Eastern partners.
But experts point to recent actions by Saudi Arabia, saying that they make it clear that these partners will work with any country that advances their interests and continued grip on power, even if it means hurtling the United States towards a global recession and enabling Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
The NSS reiterates what the Biden administration has said for more than a year: the “competition between autocracies and democracies” is, in fact, an exercise in countering China and Russia through strengthened alliances with democracies.
But China and Russia are not the only governments exporting autocracy or driving more than 15 years of global democratic decline. Countering their destabilizing influence is necessary but not sufficient for advancing and protecting democracy, both globally and in the Middle East.
Experts are calling for democracies to partner with instead of autocracies. Evidence shows that democracies are more reliable, peaceful, and prosperous partners than autocracies.
Experts say it is time for the Biden administration to treat democracy and human rights in the Middle East as vital national security interests essential for the region’s stability and security, not threats to them.
The Biden administration should attach more stringent human rights and anti-corruption conditions to security assistance and arms sales, which are often the strongest forms of leverage with authoritarian regimes, experts said. With this assistance oftentimes fueling rather than resolving conflict and enabling human rights abuses, conditionality is key.
Political realists have argued that these tactics don’t change behavior, but there is little evidence that giving weapons with no strings attached results in more consistent or measurable security benefits or advances American interests.
As the Biden administration formulates strategies to counter China’s and Russia’s authoritarian influence and rewriting of global norms, it should not exempt its Middle Eastern partners from the same kind of action and attitude, experts said.
If the United States wants democracy to prevail over autocracy, it must seize on inflection points where democratic change is possible and compel partner nations to change.
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