Athens also enthusiastically supports America by being a regional security provider and diplomatic leader. Its position at the region’s nexus, including its deep-water port at Souda Bay on Crete, is ideal for projecting power in all directions. Greece is a particularly appealing location and partner. ground, air and naval assets could rotate or rapidly deploy into nearby Eastern Europe, the Black Sea, the Middle East, the Red Sea, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. From a few strategic locations in the region, U.S. This will require modest enhancement to U.S. The United States can mitigate the problematic effects of this broader retrenchment and compensate for drawdowns in adjacent regions by re-envisioning the Eastern Mediterranean as a multi-theater power projection platform.
These developments could create voids to be filled and fought over by great powers, Turkey, Iran and terrorist groups - and America’s allies are caught in the middle. bases and troop levels are contracting in the Middle East and Africa, while doubts persist in the trans-Atlantic alliance and in Moscow about America’s concrete commitments to collective defense. presence is receding from hot spots adjacent to the Eastern Mediterranean. And as the Pentagon refocuses on competing with China in the Indo-Pacific, U.S. The United States only home ports a single logistics ship in the region. Though not a great power, Iran is entrenching its militias, with their increasingly capable missiles and drones that can target shipping, along Lebanese and Syrian shores.Īmerica’s current regional force posture struggles to address these challenges. By acquiring ownership stakes and operating rights for ports and other critical infrastructure, China’s Belt and Road Initiative is expanding into the Eastern Mediterranean. Russia’s military bases in Syria and Libya, and the return of its naval forces to the Mediterranean, imperil NATO’s southeastern flank. Great powers increasingly call the region home as well. partners Greece, Cyprus, Israel and Egypt. Most notably, Turkey’s transformation under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan - from a reliable ally into an unpredictable, unilateral and interventionist actor - is playing out on all three continents and among the waters in between, where Ankara threatens peaceful development of some of the world’s largest recent energy finds by U.S. For that same reason, it is becoming a crucial arena for expansionist forces seeking to undermine U.S. As the literal “sea between the lands,” the Eastern Mediterranean is a natural geostrategic link between Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
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