Transnational war in Syria: The Eisenhower Doctrine in the 21st Century? Paper for the Political Studies Association UK (PSA) Annual Conference 2016, Section ‘Turkey and Syria’, Hilton Meeting Room 4, Brighton, 21 March Jörg Michael Dostal Associate Professor Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University Republic of Korea
[email protected] http://gspa.snu.ac.kr/new/sub3/sub_030101_24.jsp and Senior Fellow Centre for Syrian Studies University of St. Andrews Introduction: The history of US geopolitical strategy in the Middle East How is it possible to define the geopolitical interests of the US in the Middle East? What kind of geopolitical strategy is used to enforce such interests? In order to identify intellectual fore- runners for the post-WW2 conduct of the US in the region, one needs to turn to geopolitical theorists broadly associated with the realist tradition in international relations. In this context, the writings of Dutch-born Yale University Professor Nicholas J. Spykman (1893-1943) de- serve particular attention. Spykman developed his views about future US strategy after an expected victory in WW2 against the background of earlier geopolitical theorists of sea pow- er, namely Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914), and of land power, namely Sir Halford Mac- kinder (1861-1947). In contrast to the former two authors, Spykman argued that US ‘security’ could no longer be guaranteed by focusing on regional defense, such as in concepts of a west- ern hemisphere, or concerns with the relative dominance of either sea power or land power, such as in the relative geopolitical advantage of the US as the leading sea power or of Russia (between 1924 and 1991 the Soviet Union) as the leading land power.