The American Foreign Policy magazine published an article saying that the administration of US President Joe Biden, which is working to restore American influence in the world, should not search for outdated options that focus on defense or securing oil supplies, and focus instead on various types of Investing in people has proven to improve people's conditions and boost their confidence in the United States.
The authors of the article, the American doctor of Lebanese descent, Maya Kahwaji, and the American military doctor Kermit Jones, believe that the Corona pandemic is an opportunity for President Biden to help the Middle East region achieve the required growth and become a center for healthcare technology.
The two authors say that successive US administrations have tried many different policies in the Middle East, and many of them have worsened the situation in the region, and that the time has come for a more humane and practical approach.
Strategic investment in health systems and population health - and speaking to the two writers - is among the investments that have proven successful, so if Biden is serious about the slogan raised by "building back better", he must take advantage of the chaos caused by the Corona epidemic to enhance the diplomacy of the "medical stethoscope." That would help the Middle East and the world better.
Washington can help bridge the gap in the level of health care between neighboring countries in the Middle East, and it can also help those countries to enhance health communication and the exchange of health care data, according to the authors.
The magazine's article stated that, over decades, Western democracies have invested billions of dollars in the Middle East on various development and military programs. US aid before the September 11 attacks in 2001 focused on good governance and relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
After those attacks, much of the American spending in the region was directed to Iraq and the Levant to counter direct military threats to US interests.
Despite all this, the situation in the region remains unstable, and Iraq has suffered from the worst economic downturn in 2020, and the outbreak of the Corona epidemic has exacerbated the Lebanese currency crisis, the decline of health care services, and the exacerbation of economic inequality.
The two writers said that the time has come for the United States to rethink its aid to the region, and that the Biden administration should look to improving the US’s relationship with the Middle East through "stethoscope" diplomacy that focuses on improving health care infrastructure in countries in the region.