Pax Americana and the Dissolution of Arab States

This chapter introduces an assessment of three decades of US hegemony over the Arab-majority states of the Middle East’s Gulf region, a relationship of political and military inequality deserving the term ‘Pax Americana’, evocative of the historical Roman imperium. Capitalizing on its unipolar strategic advantage with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US began a campaign of direct military intervention and destruction of nationalist regimes in order to pacify the Middle East and prevent the emergence of any power able to challenge American dominance. The populations of the targeted states, including Iraq, thereby faced a precarious future, without the protection of state institutions, against a range of predatory actors.