Marsher here. Welcome back to the Realignment.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. Before we dive into today's episode,

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onto today's episode. My guest today is Steven Simon, author of the recently released

Grand Delusion, The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East. After all of our

coverage of the Iraq War, Afghanistan and the broad dissatisfaction with the past 20 years of

the war on terror in terms of the United States. I wanted to do something with a more forward

facing rather than just looking at the past, focused on what the Middle East actually means to the US

in 2023, whether we've true moved on, aka is there a possibility that this is like the 1990s,

where we think it's over after the desert storm, but 10 years later, as November 11th happens.

And what the broader lessons for US foreign policy are as attention shifts to the Asia Pacific

and Eastern Europe as we face great power rivalry with China and Russia. Steven is the perfect

guest to cover this topic with. He was on the National Security Council staff as senior director

from Middle East during the North African Affairs. During the Obama administration, he worked on

the NSC staff from 1994 to 1999 on counterterrorism in the release during the North African administration

and at a 15 year career in the State Department prior to that. Lots of great things here. We'd love

to hear what you think. Okay, send us an email or of course leave a question about anything

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