The Mecca Pact and the Limits of Burden-Shifting

The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, signed Aug. 7 by Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, is the clearest signal that the Middle East is responding to the new U.S. strategy predicated on burden-sharing and burden-shifting. However, the pact’s failure to rush to Riyadh’s defense when the Houthis began attacking Saudi Arabia earlier this month has caused […]

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Kamran Bokhari, PhD, is a regular contributor to and former senior analyst (2015-2018) with Geopolitical Futures. A strategic forecaster, Dr. Bokhari is now a Senior Resident Fellow with the Middle East Policy Council and a Senior Director at the New Lines Institute for Strategy & Policy in Washington, DC. Bokhari also teaches Eurasian Geopolitics at Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program. Previously, has served as the Coordinator for Central Asia Studies at the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @Kamran Bokhari