Book Launch Event
West Asia: A New American Grand Strategy in the Middle East

Join us for a a book launch and conversation with Mohammed Soliman, Senior Fellow, Middle East Institute, in conversation with Dr. Kenneth M. Pollack, Vice President for Policy, Middle East Institute.

The borders that once separated the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean have functionally collapsed, and in doing so, the Middle East is being decoupled from North Africa and pulled decisively into Asia’s orbit. In West Asia: A New American Grand Strategy in the Middle East, Mohammed Soliman argues that what is emerging is not something new but something restored: the integrated Asian system that existed before the Portuguese landed in India, now reasserting itself as a single strategic and economic space stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, held together by trade, capital, AI infrastructure, security networks, and immigration that no legacy framework was designed to see whole. At this public launch, Soliman and Pollack will discuss what this collapse of borders means for American grand strategy and why getting the geography right is the precondition for getting everything else right.

Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Open to the media.

Speakers

Mohammed Soliman is a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute, where he focuses on the intersection of technology, geopolitics, and business in the Middle East and other emerging markets. A trained engineer, he is a Manager at McLarty Associates, a global advisory firm, where he advises on strategic and policy matters at the intersection of technology, AI, finance, and energy.

Dr. Kenneth M. Pollack (Moderator) is Vice President for Policy at the Middle East Institute. Dr. Pollack began his career as a Persian Gulf Military Analyst at the CIA and served twice on the National Security Council, first as Director for Near East and South Asian affairs and then as Director for Persian Gulf affairs.