Future U.S. strategy must be based on building strong bilateral relationships with key countries. These relationships will give American leaders the flexibility to exert influence at all five levels of the regional struggle and create a firebreak against the destructive forces that are trying to rip the Middle East apart. The core of those bilateral relations could well start with a string of countries running from Tunisia to Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Iraq.

The next president will need to take a much more sophisticated, proactive, and serious approach to the greater Middle East than the one we’ve seen for the last six years.

James Jay Carafano is a vice president of the Heritage Foundation, where he heads the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy.

Image: Flickr/ RamyRaoof