GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

Is the US misjudging the Middle East’s power shifts? Vali Nasr's view

Is the US Misjudging the Middle East’s Power Shifts? | Vali Nasr | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

"Pivot to Asia." It was the catchphrase floating around Washington DC's foreign policy circles in 2009 when President Obama first took office. And yet twelve years later, the Middle East continues to consume the attention of the United States' military and diplomatic efforts. Now President Biden is determined to change that, and to turn Washington's attention to Asia once and for all as he moves to confront a growing China. But according to Johns Hopkins University Middle East scholar Vali Nasr, President Biden's approach to the Middle East will have to adapt to the once-in-a-generation power grab occurring between Iran, Israel, and Turkey while Arab nations in the region increasingly lose influence.

More For You

CEO and Co-Founder of Anthropic Dario Amodei speaks during the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 20, 2026.
REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

The release of Antrhopic’s Mythos, a powerful AI model with an extraordinary ability to identify software vulnerabilities, appears to have rattled the Trump administration.

A view of Iranian-flagged cargo ship Touska as USS Spruance (DDG 111) conducts its interception in a location given as the north Arabian Sea, in this screen capture from a video released on April 19, 2026.
CENTCOM/Handout via REUTERS

The US Navy isn’t just intercepting Iranian-linked ships outside the Strait of Hormuz. It’s redirecting Iranian-linked ships in Asian waters, too.