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→Post-Soviet Europe
In its long [[history]], Europe has been at peace only when its major powers have all been included in a cooperative security system. The [[Concert of Europe]] kept the European peace for a century. The exclusion of [[Germany]] and the USSR from the councils of Europe in the 1920s and 1930s catalyzed [[World War II]] and the [[Cold War]]. The attempted exclusion of Russia from a role in the maintenance of [[peace]] and [[security]] in Europe in the 21st century has deprived it of [[diplomatic]] alternatives to a relapse into [[belligerent]] behavior.
In its long [[history]], Europe has been at peace only when its major powers have all been included in a cooperative security system. The [[Concert of Europe]] kept the European peace for a century. The exclusion of [[Germany]] and the USSR from the councils of Europe in the 1920s and 1930s catalyzed [[World War II]] and the [[Cold War]]. The attempted exclusion of Russia from a role in the maintenance of [[peace]] and [[security]] in Europe in the 21st century has deprived it of [[diplomatic]] alternatives to a relapse into [[belligerent]] behavior.
==Middle East==
In the [[Middle East], now commonly called West Asia, the collapse of the [[USSR]] orphaned [[Iraq]] and [[Syria]], both of which had remained part of the shrunken [[Soviet]] sphere of influence that followed [[Egypt]]'s defection to America after the [[Camp David Accords]] in 1979. No longer constrained by [[Moscow]], Iraq gambled that it could alleviate the [[financial]] exhaustion of the eight-year [[Iran-Iraq War]] by seizing [[Kuwait]] and its [[oil]] riches. In response, a [[UN]]-authorized [[coalition]] of forces led by the [[United States]] and [[Saudi Arabia]] liberated Kuwait. Syria joined this coalition, signaling a willingness to explore relations with the United States as a partial substitute for the support of the vanished USSR, but was rebuffed due to its hostility to [[Israel]].
In 2003, the United States [[Iraq war|invaded Iraq]], ousted its [[government]], and attempted to incorporate it into the American [[politico]]-[[military]] sphere of influence. The U.S. achieved military dominance in Iraq only to see [[Iran]] gain a paramount position in its politics. The concurrent U.S. effort to engineer [[regime change]] in Syria failed, entrenching Iranian influence there and providing an unexpected opportunity for a resurgence of [[Russian]] influence in the [[Assad government]]. The destabilization of Iraq and Syria provoked a backlash by [[Islamist]] [[extremist]]s, who briefly erased the border between the two and established an "[[Islamic state]]." [[Turkiye]] incorporated parts of northern Iraq and Syria into its military and [[economic]] spheres. The United States established a blatantly [[illegal]] military presence in Syria. After the withdrawal of all but a residual U.S. military training mission, [[China]] became the preeminent foreign participant in the Iraqi economy. Meanwhile, "[[fracking]]" enabled the United States to resume its historic status as a major [[energy]] [[export]]er and made it the swing producer in global energy [[market]]s. This reduced the centrality of the [[Persian Gulf]] in U.S. global [[policy]]. The [[American]] commitment to Persian Gulf [[security]] diminished concomitantly.
As the 21st century proceeded, U.S dominance of the affairs of the "[[Middle East]]" eroded. Despite the resurgence in Russian influence and intermittent [[French]] attempts to reassert a leading role in [[Lebanon]], regional rather than external powers began to drive politico-military rivalries and dynamics there. China is displacing other [[great power]]s as the region's largest economic partner, but the Middle East is no longer in the sphere of influence of any great power or divided between several, as in the past.
==See also==
==See also==