US management of Middle East war and peace: Between defensive realism and offensive liberalism

How does the US manage regional conflicts and their escalation to wars? In responding to this question, four management types can be derived. The objectives can focus on either the regional balance of power (BOP)1 or the domestic character of the regional states. The means can be either a unilateral approach or a multilateral one. These management types can approximate theoretical International Relations (IR) approaches. In general, realists focus on the regional balance of power, 2 while liberals focus on the domestic character of the state.3 Furthermore, the defensive approach, either realist or liberal, uses multilateral means, while the offensive approach uses unilateral means. Thus, four management types emerge – offensive realism, defensive realism, offensive liberalism, and defensive liberalism (see Table 1.1).