“If You Want Something Done, Do It Yourself”

The world today seems caught between the fever of the World Cup and the social media posts of American President Donald Trump, with all the immediate repercussions these carry for the violent swings in oil and gold prices, and for the considerable profits reaped by the speculations tied to them.

Yet this media “noise” conceals behind it shifts that are deeper and more consequential, manifest in the redrawing of the network of regional and international alliances, driven by the accelerating fallout from the confrontation underway between the United States and Israel on one side, and Iran and its ramifications on the other.

The Arab partners of the United States in the Middle East have thus begun reassessing their strategic positioning and their traditional alliances, even if the contours of these reconfigurations have not yet fully taken shape. The United Arab Emirates is adopting a firmer stance towards Iran, while continuing to strengthen its ties with both Israel and India; Saudi Arabia, for its part, has activated a closer defence cooperation with Pakistan, intensifying at the same time its political and security coordination with Turkey and Egypt.

In the face of these developments, the expression “New Middle East”, which gained wide currency in recent years, no longer seems capable of accurately capturing the emerging reality, nor of encompassing the new strategic alliances that are reshaping the region’s security architecture and its balances of power. The traditional conception of this “New Middle East” has thus been overtaken by the facts now taking hold.

While these strategic transformations await clearer definition, global markets continue to be agitated by speculations and political declarations that have become capable of shifting capital and fortunes within minutes. And in the meantime, the poor and developing countries continue to bear the heaviest price of these disruptions.

Every rise in energy or food prices, every upheaval in global markets, lands directly on the lives of citizens in these countries, who find themselves at the mercy of decisions and events over which they have no influence whatsoever.

It is here that the need asserts itself to reconsider the development models in place, and to work earnestly towards achieving the highest possible degree of self-sufficiency in food, energy and production, drawing on the strengthening of national unity and the combined efforts of all the children of the nation, whether they live at home or are settled in the furthest corners of the world.

Experience has shown that the states which succeeded in building the foundations of their own strength were the most capable of weathering global crises, and the most able to defend their national interests with genuine independence.

And in the end, it is popular wisdom that gives the most fitting expression to this truth: “If you want something done, do it yourself.” The nations that rely on their own capacities and invest in the talents of their people are the best placed to protect their future and to safeguard the independence of their economic and political decision-making.