By Assawer Toheed.
The Middle Eastern Strategic Alliance (MESA) is the United States of America’s relatively recent venture into and attempt towards maintaining its control over the Middle East. As a result, another one of these alliances pertaining to enhancing partnerships among the Middle Eastern states and the United States of America has gained prominence, the operationalization of which is questionable. This particular organization is of interest not only because of its recent emergence but also because of the part its operationalization (or lack thereof), its aims and goals, and its possible and plausible results could play in redefining regional stature and dynamics; which can also consequently have an impact on the global order, at large. This essay attempts to discuss and analyse the future of the Middle Eastern Strategic Alliance. It takes into account three different contextual viewpoints to examine the aforementioned; the first viewpoint takes a general approach in studying the trends in terms of where the alliance is headed; the second viewpoint takes into account a possible regional development/threat I.e. Iran’s aspirations towards developing a full-fledged nuclear program and thus achieving nuclear capability and examines the impact it would have on the viability of the Middle Eastern Strategic Alliance; the third and last viewpoint appraises MESA through the lens of the approaching presidential elections in the United States of America and examines the survivability of the alliance should the reins of rule shift to a different party.