It's So Embarrassing When U.S. Clients Feud
Ted Galen Carpenter
Security, Eurasia
One of the pitfalls of being a superpower is that at times two or more of your clients will feud with each other.
One of the pitfalls of being a superpower with a multitude of political and security clients around the world is that at times two or more of them will feud with each other. There have been numerous examples in recent years, both serious and farcical. The periodic quarrels between Japan and South Korea over a tiny island typify the former. The two countries can’t even agree on the name of the island. To Koreans, it’s Dokdo, to Japanese it’s Takeshima. However, the animosity has a unsettling aspect. If the two U.S. allies ever came to blows (unlikely, but far from impossible) it would disrupt Washington’s ties with both countries and have unpleasant rippling effects throughout Northeast Asia.
Another quarrel that already has produced unpleasant complications is the one between Turkey and Kurdish factions in Iraq and Syria. Both the Obama and Trump administrations regard the Kurds as useful allies in the fight against ISIS and other Islamic extremists. But Ankara considers Kurdish ambitions a mortal threat to Turkey’s territorial integrity, and that country is America’s treaty ally in NATO. Turkish forces already have launched repeated attacks against Kurdish fighters in both Iraq and Syria. Ankara also exerted tremendous pressure on Washington to stop arming the Syrian Kurds, and the Trump administration has announced its compliance with that request.
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