Many of the key questions that plagued Eisenhower back in the day continue to challenge Obama today, and will challenge Trump as he plans his security measures. In a region so riven with conflict, how much support does America owe its allies? What criteria should the United States use to distinguish between allies and enemies? Should Washington make policy toward Arab and Muslim regimes and publics collectively, or should it focus on the narrow interests of specific elites? Is Israel a liability or an asset?

Today in the Middle East, we are witnessing the fall of a discredited old order and the rise of something new, as transnational Islamist movements are shaking the region in a manner similar to Nasser’s Pan-Arabism.

Michael Doran is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. He specializes in Middle East security issues. During the administration of President George W. Bush, Doran served in the White House as a senior director in the National Security Council. He also served in the Bush administration as a senior advisor in the State Department and a deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Pentagon.

Doran is the author of Pan-Arabism before Nasser, which analyzes the first Arab-Israeli war as an inter-Arab conflict. His new book, Ike’s Gamble: America’s Rise to Dominance in the Middle East, was published in October. He appears frequently on television and has published extensively in Foreign Affairs, The American Interest, Commentary, Mosaic Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.