The Middle East in a Multipolar Era: Why America’s Allies Are Flirting With Russia and China

Dec 7, 2022

Also published in Foreign Affairs
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Chinese President Xi Jinping at a summit in Beijing - source: Reuters
About the Authors
Michael Singh
Michael Singh

Michael Singh is the Managing Director and Lane-Swig Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute.

Articles & Testimony

Because many states are eschewing both alignment with a single great power and nonalignment, the best U.S. response to this “omni-alignment” is creating more tailored opportunities for high-value cooperation with Washington.

For much of the past year, the Biden administration has struggled to find ways to ease the price of oil amid the shock of Russia’s war in Ukraine. So when OPEC+ decided to cut oil production by two million barrels per day in early October, Washington’s reaction was unsparing. “It’s clear,” asserted White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, “that OPEC+ is aligning with Russia.” The blunt criticism was all the more striking given that it was aimed at Saudi Arabia, an important U.S. partner in the Middle East. The administration’s black-and-white view of Saudi motives is in line with its broader perspective on partners. Since coming to office, the Biden administration has frequently taken a binary view of the international order. Partly as a result, it has tended to treat decisions by its partners as a litmus test of loyalty to the United States. But this is a vision that many U.S. partners do not share...

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