Why U.S. Policy Has Failed in the Middle East

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Obama, Biden, and Trump all campaigned on pulling back from the Middle East. Why did they fail?

For decades, American policymakers have tried to reshape the Middle East—a project that has left U.S. politics polarized, and the region, arguably, less stable.

For nearly 20 years, U.S. presidents have vowed to pull back from the Middle East. But not a single one—not Barack Obama, Donald Trump, or Joe Biden—have come close to succeeding.

Steven A. Cook, senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and I look back at the past 30 years of failure—and success—of American intervention in the Middle East through the lens of his latest book, The End of Ambition: America's Past, Present, and Future in the Middle East.

They discuss: Why does Washington continue to chase transformational change in the Middle East? How did Obama misunderstand the ayatollahs in the lead-up to the nuclear deal? Should Biden have withdrawn troops from Afghanistan? Was Trump’s decision to strike three Iranian nuclear sites the right call? And above all: How can the United States safeguard its interests as China moves to expand its influence in the region?

It’s a sweeping conversation about American policy in the region that you won’t want to miss.