1- Grand Strategies and Great Powers’ Quest for Influence The rise of China as a great power and its strategic competition with the United States are some of the most significant geopolitical shifts the world has witnessed since the demise of the Soviet Union in the early nineties. [...] In addition to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative and the G7’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment mentioned above, these also include the European Union’s (EU) Global Gateway Initiative, which is not associated with a security or a geopolitical grand strategy in the same way as the former two given the continent’s partial dependence on the American security umbrella for its def. [...] grand strategy in the region — which traditionally focused on protecting energy security, maintaining the balance of power in the region, finding a solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict, and combating terrorism — appears more interested in the region as a way of controlling the supply of fossil fuels to China, and as a transit corridor for rapid deployment of American forces to the Indian Ocean.3. [...] While China has thus far steered away from intervening in the geopolitical tug of war between the US-led camp and the Russia-Iran camp, it may be forced to intervene as its economic interests in the region continue to grow.32 The EU, which is the closest to the MENA region geographically, remains largely absent from the region geopolitically, and appears unwilling to take sides. [...] It describes an area the center of the world island (Eurasia and Africa), stretching from the Volga to the Yangtze and from the Himalayas to the Arctic.
- Pages
- 16
- Published in
- Turkey
