The Middle East is realigning. Is America ready?

When America is perceived as fully engaged in the Middle East, with a credible military threat, adversaries retreat, and allies feel assured. Unfortunately, the Middle East has realigned, primarily due to America's decision to withdraw from the region, forcing long-time American partners to reconsider America's reliability. The region's authoritarians prefer America as an ally over China, Russia, and Iran, but America is distracted and perceived as weak. This is why they are now looking elsewhere. The Middle East continually changes and confounds American foreign policy experts, who repeatedly fall into the trap of analyzing it through a Western lens. In…