The Greater Middle East and Its Strategic Profile

In Afghanistan and subsequently in Iraq America’s armed forces consummated a strategic revolution, many of whose dimensions have yet to be understood. The strategic revolution revealed in these two wars comprises several critical aspects of modern warfare as they apply to the increasingly linked theaters of Central Asia and the Middle East (including the Persian Gulf). Indeed, this linkage is one of the key aspects of that revolution and our focus here. But the trends that we can observe emerging out of these wars also possess profound strategic relevance for military theaters beyond Southwest Asia and thus for the analysis of contemporary warfare and strategy in general.