Resumen

ANAZ, Necati. Understanding the contemporary United States and European Union foreign policy in the Middle East. Estud. Polit. [online]. 2011, n.38, pp.175-194. ISSN 0121-5167.

United States, as the dominant geopolitical power in the Middle East, has been struggling to stabilize the region to achieve its geopolitical objectives and interests. Especially since the Second World War, the US has rioritized, enacted and represented Middle East policies as vital to securing its "national interests" till terrorist attacks on the twin towers in New York City. As it is understood, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, markeda dramatic changenot onlyin US policy, but in USrhetoricandinternational discourses as well. Following the terror attacks, US Middle East policy shifted from being the matter of "national security," which primarily puts more emphases on "responsive securitization", to the "preventive securitization of national interests," particularly under the neo-conservative Bush Administrations. Consequently, US launched two direct military engagements in Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003), and involved in unilateral regime change in those states ostensibly, to secure its national interests and provide world peace in the long run. It is important to highlight here that US cleared the full support (rhetorically, at least) of the United Nations to disarm the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. This study, therefore, attempts to revisit and conceptualize the contemporary US and EU Middle East foreign policy -though they are not identical- before and after the September 11 terror attack. The argument here is that the Middle East policy objectives of the US and the EU primarily agglomerate around two main headings: security of oil and protecting the state of Israel in an Arab-dominated region. Closely related, but not equivalent, both the US and EU have a stake in establishing good relations with the Arab states and promoting democracy and liberal market economies in the Middle East. This study also reviews the President Barack Obama's Middle Eastern foreign policy initiatives and attempts to suggest several key points.

Palabras clave : US and EU Foreign Policy; Middle East; 9/11; 2001; Security; Obama Administration.

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