Antony J. Blinken
Back in the early 1960s, leading diplomats, public intellectuals, philanthropists, and others came together in Washington to create an organization that was founded on meeting the challenges of an increasingly interdependent world. In attendance, among others, [was] Secretary of State Dean Rusk, who was blunt about what he thought would be most useful for this Council: “The Department is hoping for initiative, research, and, if necessary, the boxing of State Department ears.”
That’s exactly what the Council has delivered for more than six and a half decades—starting with the transatlantic relationship, growing to incorporate expertise on other parts of the world, including the region that I want to talk about today: the Middle East.
Now, from the outset the Biden administration’s primary goal in the Middle East was not to repeat the blunder of years past of trying to transform its governments or its societies—but rather to transform relations with, between, and among US partners in the region. That’s because we saw a more integrated region as more likely to be stable and secure, to deliver economic opportunity for its people, to find solutions to shared challenges, from pandemics and terrorism to infrastructure and energy needs. A more integrated region is also in a stronger position to prevent any one of its neighbors from dominating the others or any outside country from dominating the region, to deter aggression and nuclear proliferation; to avert, to deescalate, to end conflict through diplomacy.
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