Mara Karlin, Contributor
Mara Karlin is director of the strategic studies program at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She has served in national security roles for five U.S. Secretaries of Defense, advising on policies spanning strategic planning, defense budgeting, future wars and the evolving security environment, and regional affairs involving the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. She is the author of Building Militaries in Fragile States: Challenges for the United States (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017).
Michael Wahid Hanna, Century International Board of Advisors
Michael Wahid Hanna is director of the U.S. program at International Crisis Group. He was a senior fellow at The Century Foundation and co-director of TCF’s foreign policy program until 2021. He is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Reiss Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law. Hanna works on issues of international security, international law, and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South Asia.
Thanassis Cambanis, Senior Fellow and Director of Century International
Thanassis Cambanis is an author, journalist, and director of Century International. His work focuses on U.S. foreign policy, Arab politics, and social movements in the Middle East.
TCF World Podcast: Downgrading America’s Commitments in the Middle East
This podcast is part of an ongoing TCF series that explores progressive policy proposals for America’s most pressing international priorities.
America has had an inflated military presence since 9/11, especially in the Middle East. Defense budgets are historically bloated, and policymakers have avoided making choices about closing bases and reducing troop deployments.
Political support is waning for the forever war and politicians from both major American parties agree that the United States needs to scale back its global military entanglements and set real priorities. The Middle East, many of them say, has occupied policy attention that should be directed to other, more pressing priorities.
Now the tough questions concern the details: What would a right-sized U.S. military presence look like in the Middle East? If the U.S. military shouldn’t have quite so many bases in the region and troops deployed, what is the right amount? What wars should the United States be prepared to fight? How, politically, can American leaders sell the idea of containing threats instead of setting impossible but popular goals, like entirely eliminating terrorism? What’s a reasonable budget?
Participants include:
Tags: middle east, us military, U.S. Foreign Policy, military intervention, progressive foreign policy