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

Room 505. Attend In-Person Attend Online Please join the Middle East Policy Forum, in partnership with the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, on November 3 to welcome Mohammed Soliman, author of West Asia: A New American Grand Strategy in the Middle East. Dr. Alyssa Ayres, Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs, will deliver opening remarks. Mohammed Soliman argues in his book that it is time for the United States to move decisively away from nation-building and get back to the business of order-building. To do so will require zooming out, in both geographical and historical terms, to build a new regional order across ‘West Asia’ – from the Middle East to South Asia, connecting Europe to the Indo-Pacific via the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Working with India, Italy, Greece, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Japan, the UK, and the United Arab Emirates, among others, he shows how the United States could lock in a new balance of power in the Eurasian supercontinent to offset Chinese and Russian efforts to disrupt the status quo and create a rival system. This new strategy rests on three layered coalitions — geostrategic, hard-power, and geo-technological — that together can anchor a stable order stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. But this will require a fundamental shift in U.S. grand strategy, with ‘West Asia’ at its core. All are invited to this Middle East Policy Forum event, cosponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and moderated by Ambassador (ret.) Gordon Gray. This event is open to the general public and media. (Dr. Ayres will deliver her opening remarks in person, but the author's travel obligations require him to participate virtually.) Discounted copies of West Asia will be available for purchase. Speakers: Mohammed Soliman is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute (MEI), where he focuses on the intersection of technology, geopolitics, and business in the Middle East and other emerging markets. He is the author of the book West Asia: A New American Grand Strategy in the Middle East (Polity Press, January 2026). A trained engineer, he is a director at McLarty Associates, a global advisory firm, where he advises on strategic and policy matters at the intersection of technology, AI, finance, and energy. In addition, he is a non-resident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a visiting fellow with the National Security Program at Third Way. Prior to joining MEI, Mr. Soliman held research and policy roles at institutions including the Peace Tech Lab at the US Institute of Peace, as well as Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and School of Foreign Service, where he was a Junior Centennial Fellow. He began his career in Cairo as an engineer and consultant, advising both local and international businesses on strategy and operations. Mr. Soliman is a frequent media commentator, with his work featured in The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, and USA Today. He has appeared on outlets such as CNN, BBC, France 24, and Deutsche Welle and regularly speaks at international conferences. His scholarly work includes numerous journal articles and book chapters on geopolitics, emerging technologies, and global economic trends. Mr. Soliman serves on the board of advisors for Ideas Beyond Borders and the Advisory Council of the Indian Society of Artificial Intelligence and Law (ISAIL). He is a member of the Expert Advisory Group of the Global Commission on Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain (GC REAIM) and a David Rockefeller Fellow of the Trilateral Commission. Dr. Alyssa Ayres is dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs and professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University, where she became the first woman to serve as permanent dean in February 2021. A foreign policy practitioner and award-winning author, she was senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations from 2013 to 2021 and served as deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia from 2010 to 2013. Her books include Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World (Oxford, 2018) and Speaking Like a State (Cambridge, 2009), and she is at work on a book about India's urban transformation. She speaks Hindi and Urdu and holds an AB from Harvard and an MA and PhD from the University of Chicago.