Middle East
Report: Crucial Players or Insufficient Powers? The USA, Russia and the EU in the Middle East
Report_Crucial Players
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Russian military operation in Syria, launched September 30th, 2015, and the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS,1 as well as the EU frantic attempts to address mounting refugee crisis and control migration flows are all focused on the threats originated from the Middle East. Despite their differences, all three players demonstrate genuine concern regarding the region, which throughout the last decades repeatedly became the focus of desperate diplomatic efforts and painful intrusions by major powers.

The report demonstrates that outside powers could play a useful role in relaxing security dilemmas through establishment of inclusive channels for dialogue. It also argues that partial harmonization of signaling for the local actors is needed to address the challenge of fractured social foundations of the Middle Eastern politics and to prevent new advancement of violent extremists.

Author of the report is Igor Istomin, Senior Lecturer at Department of Applied International Political Analysis, MGIMO University.