In Retreat: America’s Withdrawal from the Middle East

Russell Berman, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, discussed US foreign policy in the Middle East in his talk entitled “In Retreat: America’s Withdrawal from the Middle East.” His book of the same name, part of a series released by the Working Group on Islamism and the International Order, is available from Hoover Press. Discussing the larger framework of the Middle East, Berman gave an overview of current events and how to improve the political situation. He emphasized that failure to properly address the Middle East could result in failed states across the region, from Algeria to Afghanistan; increased competition with Russia as a revanchist power; and frayed relations with the European Union. He went on to describe how US foreign policy, despite these risks, is moving in the wrong direction, using a time line of US withdrawal from the region. He ended with a call to return to democratic values in foreign policy.