The Middle East has long been a regionMediation by designconcept of where external powers sought to mediate rivalries and shape alignments. For much of the twentieth century, Western actors dominated this role, particularly the United States. American military presence, alliance structures, and security guarantees defined the parameters of regional diplomacy. The American-led order in the Gulf rested on a distinctive architecture: bilateral security pacts with monarchies, the containment of revolutionary Iran, the projection of naval power through the Fifth Fleet, and the orchestration of regional balances that prevented any single actor from achieving hegemony. This system, while frequently contested and never entirely stable, provided the scaffolding within which Middle Eastern states navigated their external relations and managed their internal competitions.