United States Strategy for Syria, Iraq, and the Islamic State

In making a greater point about malpractices in U.S. foreign policy, Dr. Biddle analyzes the interventional failures in the Middle East using a lens that emphasizes the mistake of the “middle-road.” The issue in allocating medium-stake investments to achieve medium-stake objectives is that, oftentimes, the severity of the situation is varied between external and internal actors. While humanitarian, security, and economic issues in the Middle East may be existential to Syrians and Iraqis, peripheral issues abroad do not elicit a full-scale response from US government officials. Perhaps these ideals should be applied contemporarily to the situation in Ukraine as well.