A new landscape for US-Middle East defense industrial partnership 

The Middle East is often written off as a costly distraction from more pressing priorities. But in a global environment that is more complex, demanding and volatile than any point in decades, reenvisioning our Middle East partnerships can reduce burdens on the U.S. and improve our ability to deter or respond to major conflict.

Our regional partners can help resolve the lack of capacity in the collective industrial bases of the U.S. and our allies worldwide. As in World War II and the Cold War, an adequate defense industrial base remains foundational for American strength, leadership and growth.  

Prolonged conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are testing this foundation. They highlight the challenges of producing critical raw materials, basic munitions, air and missile defenses and other core requirements for our forces and for our partners. 

These issues will become particularly acute if the U.S. engages in protracted conflict or is required to support simultaneous combat operations in multiple theaters. The tightening alignment of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea demands that we prepare for such contingencies. 

Addressing this global challenge requires a truly global approach. The Pentagon and U.S. defense companies have begun working with allies in Europe and the Indo-Pacific to strengthen production, technology sharing and supply chain resilience.  

Similar efforts are ongoing in the Middle East. Yet there is great, if untapped, potential to enhance these initiatives for everyone’s benefit, as elaborated in our organization’s new report. 

America’s close friends there have the drive, capital and critical resources to enhance production for many of the crucial materials, munitions, and platforms where current U.S.-led efforts cannot meet global demand.

Important groundwork is already being laid. Israel’s high-tech defense sector conducts extensive joint research, development and production with U.S. companies. 

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are diversifying global supply chains for critical minerals away from China’s near-monopoly control and, with it, Beijing’s dangerous leverage. All three countries are ramping up defense spending and investments in domestic industry for everything from strategic raw materials to weapons systems, including seeking joint ventures with U.S. and other Western firms.  

The Middle East’s growing potential is also evident in new partnerships signed during President Trump’s trip to the region, including stronger defense industrial cooperation with the United Arab Emirates. 

Working with Congress, defense companies and our partners, the Trump administration has a valuable opportunity to enhance these initiatives and support our partners in developing greater production capacity, supply chain resilience, and access to technology. 

To be most effective and expeditious, the United States and its partners in the Middle East should prioritize programs of record with minimal bureaucratic and legal strings attached. 

As momentum builds, the Defense Department, Congress and U.S. defense industry can work together to increase the opportunities for our partners to enhance their capability for domestic production and access to advanced technologies. 

To this end, the Trump administration must streamline and simplify its approach to foreign military sales and examine the legal and policy limitations in America’s existing export control regime. As per U.S. law, the executive branch and Congress can and must work together here, coming up with viable options to legislate reforms and sign them into law. 

Progress on this front can help change bottom-line incentives for the U.S. defense industry to view the Middle East, like it already does Europe and the Indo-Pacific, as an opportunity to boost global defense industrial capacity and resilience. 

Deepening our Middle East partnerships will benefit U.S. industry and economic productivity. Our partners will become more capable in self-defense, while the irreplaceable value of American leadership will be reinforced. 

In turn, we can move closer to achieving the potentially transformational goals identified during the president’s recent trip, while also expanding the Abraham Accords, integrating Middle East air and missile defenses, enhancing regional prosperity, and reducing our adversaries’ malign influence there. 

In all these ways, a new approach to the Middle East can make our own presence in the region more sustainable. It can also strengthen our core interests and deterrence throughout an increasingly troubled world.  

Gen Joseph Dunford, USMC (ret.) served as the 19th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Amb. Eric Edelman was undersecretary of Defense for Policy and is a distinguished scholar at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. Together they co-chair a project on U.S. defense industrial cooperation at JINSA.