Abandoning the Middle East? Navy's AI Drone Fleet Says Otherwise
The high-tech Digital Ocean deployment in Middle Eastern waters needs to be coupled with an update of the 50-year-old Carter Doctrine.
Keeping watch.
Photographer: DeAndre Dawkins/Navy Office of Information
For more than a decade, Washington's Arab partners in the Persian Gulf have feared that the US is slowly abandoning the region. This view ignores strong evidence that the American security commitment remains high, even given the recent US-Saudi Arabia quarreling over oil prices. Nonetheless, the 50-year-old Carter Doctrine, the basis of the US security commitment in the Gulf region, needs to be updated and reaffirmed.
The 1980 Doctrine held that the US would intervene to prevent any outside force from gaining control of the region. It was understood this included repelling any assaults on Gulf Arab states, such as the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.