South Korea s Middle Power Diplomacy

The Changing Map of Middle East Power

Gaza has no light or power in the middle of terrible winter.

Such a projection of Asian power and of Asia s power struggles into the Middle East may seem a distant prospect today.

Such a projection of Asian power and of Asia s power struggles into the Middle East may seem a distant prospect today.

America s biggest strategic blunder in the Middle East arguably concerns the emergence of Iranian power.

Non state actors also play a crucial role in the Middle East s balance of power.

Indeed, about a dozen Middle East and North African countries propose to build nuclear power plants.

The existing power relations in the Middle East have indeed been permanently shaken and, indeed, revolutionized.

Two outcomes could flow from America s adopted role as the decisive power in the Middle East.

The United States, as a major Middle East power, and Europe also have an interest in stemming the tide of nuclear proliferation that now threatens the Middle East.

Currently, however, Obama s smart power strategy is facing a stiff challenge from events in the Middle East.

As a result, Turkey, not Iran, is on track to become this century s key Middle Eastern power.

The only regional power in the Middle East today is Iran, but it is not a stabilizing force.

With the Iraq war, the US has lost its unilateral power position in the Middle East, and elsewhere.

As the three pillars of Western Middle East policy crumble, a new Middle East is taking shape, buffeted by Pacific trade winds and owing allegiance to more than one power.

Today, US power in the Middle East is at its historical nadir, and Russia is seeking to fill the vacuum.

The middle class has increased to around 35 million and the upper and upper middle classes to around 17 million in recent decades, and power is shifting from rural landowners to the urbanised elites.

The Middle Eastern uprisings have pushed oil prices higher, eating up consumer purchasing power while raising input prices for many producers.

Iran is betting on revolutionary changes within the power structure of the Middle East to help it achieve its strategic goal.

According to one estimate, middle class consumers in a dozen emerging economies today wield annual purchasing power totaling approximately 6.9 trillion.

Even adjusted for purchasing power, India s middle class today probably totals no more than 70 million (far smaller than is generally assumed).

In terms of purchasing power parity, per capita income in middle income countries is still about 15 of that of developed nations.

Consider Turkey, a rising economic power in the Middle East that seemed destined until recently to become the region s sole Muslim democracy.

Along with its restraints on liberty and its dramatic increase in the power of the Kremlin bureaucracy, Putin has overseen the rise of a Russian middle class that has become increasingly similar to Western middle classes.

The siege went on for three and a half years, and it was a siege without water, without power, without electricity, without heat, without food, in the middle of Europe, in the middle of the 20th century.

When they had stood them in the middle of them, they inquired, By what power, or in what name, have you done this?

A 60 L.33 Item 14 The situation in the Middle East 23 Power draft resolution Jerusalem A C E F R S

Now if you don't have power, or, God forbid, the power cuts out in the middle of surgery, this machine transitions automatically, without even having to touch it, to drawing in room air from this inlet.

Nevertheless, the US will remain the most influential external actor in the Middle East, for its failure is one of leadership, not of actual power.

Tony Blair s endorsement of Bush s Middle East designs showed that an imbalance of power in an alliance always causes the weaker partner to become subservient.

But the insurgency is no barrier to China s use of Gwadar to project power in the Middle East and East Africa, and against peninsula India.

More generally, the currency of conventional military power in the Middle East would largely lose its value, inevitably resulting in a regional nuclear arms race.

Israel wants indeed, desperately needs peace and stability in the Middle East, and we will continue to do everything in our power to achieve it.

A 60 L.33 Add.1 Item 14 The situation in the Middle East 30 Power draft resolution Jerusalem A C E F R S

A 60 L.32 Item 14 The situation in the Middle East 24 Power draft resolution The Syrian Golan A C E F R S

The Middle Kingdom s Middle Class

Quietly, South Korea has moved away from being defined by its problematic North Korean neighbor, and is becoming an important middle ranking power in global affairs.

The specter of revolution had forced Western elites to use the power of the state to redistribute wealth and nurture the growth of loyal middle classes.

As a result, the collapse of the old power structures in many Middle East countries is likely to be accompanied by considerable political turmoil and violence.

Compared to Guatemala where the power distance is very high (95) and Israel where it is very low (13), the United States is in the middle.

From Middle Israel to Middle Palestine

Should Iran manage to become a nuclear power, the Saudis existential fears would dramatically escalate. More generally, the currency of conventional military power in the Middle East would largely lose its value, inevitably resulting in a regional nuclear arms race.

But on the middle chessboard, economic power is already multi polar, with the US, Europe, Japan and China as the major players, and others gaining in importance.

With a per capita income of around 4000 (more with purchasing power adjustments), important parts of China s economy are already, or are now entering, middle income status.