Theorizing Post-Cold War US Imperial Strategies in the Middle East: Integrating the Region into the Capitalist World Market

In this paper, I argue that the shift in the US policy is an indication of active US interest in transforming the existing social relations in the Middle East in order to integrate the region fully into the capitalist world market. Secure and sustained capital accumulation requires enforcement of contracts, the rule of law and the defence of and respect for private property. Hence, the project of the US in the Middle East entails the institutionalization of liberal rights for capital accumulation whereby popular dissent and protest would become neutralized through their absorption in formal political institutions. In other words, the Middle East is set to embrace crucial elements of a liberal democratic system whereby we might see a remaking of the Middle Eastern political, economic, and judicial maps. Besides giving US corporations access to its massive oil reserves and reconstruction funds, Iraq plays an important role as part of the larger strategic goals of the US in the Middle East. I will conclude by critically analyzing US imperial rule in the region.