Podcast: Should the US withdraw from the Middle East?

Date of Publication: 05/10/2018 Description: According to Jeff Colgan, Associate Prof at Brown University, ‘over the past 25 years, US foreign policy outcomes in the Middle East have gone from more or less acceptable to downright awful.’ Arguably, the most notable US foreign policy failure in the region was the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, but to this day, US success in the Middle East is further challenged by complex conflicts, including those in Afghanistan and Syria, and is also impacted by the presence of terrorist organizations within Middle Eastern states faced with instability. Due to undesirable and costly outcomes in the past, many in Washington DC have contemplated whether the US should withdraw from the Middle East. However, if the US were to withdraw, this decision could not only impact US national interests but also have security consequences for the Middle East. On the 24th of September, the Department of War Studies and the Conflict, Security and Development Research Group welcomed Prof Colgan for his talk titled, Should the US Withdraw from the Middle East. But, before his talk, I met up with Prof Colgan and Dr Stacey Gutkowski, Senior Lecturer in the Dept of War Studies, for a general discussion on the headlining question posed by Prof. Colgan's talk. Let’s hear what they had to say. ____________________ A recording of Jeff Colgan's talk at KCL will be available soon! ____________________ This podcast was produced by Kirk Allen.