.. When looking at policymaking, one must consider how engaged the American public is prepared to be in the Middle East. Although the United States is weary of interventions that do not succeed, the recent ISIS beheadings spurred a massive shift in public opinion. There is now more willingness to stay engaged if Washington can provide convincing clarity of action. At the same time, the United States has spent more in real dollars on the Afghanistan intervention than it spent on the Marshall Plan after World War II, and the public has at least a general sense of the gap between these costs and what there is to show for them. Another key issue in policymaking is strategic patience, which Washington has been too short of lately in the Middle East. At least some of the blame for this problem lies in the phrase Arab Spring, which created unrealistic expectations that conditions in the region would quickly change for the better. Undoing that impression among policy planners is therefore important. https://youtube/watch?v=sdFmGJQIkfU washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/a-moving-target-the-art-and-science-of-middle-east-policy-planning
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 07:37:19 +0000