This is Not the NATO You’re Looking For: A Practical Vision for Arab and Asian Security Networks

"What can work is something more diverse and flexible that can accommodate nations’ differing comfort levels and willingness to engage on specific interests. The problem with embracing just a Gulf Arab alliance or one Asian organization is that certain actors will be left out. They will only be able to address a subset of the region’s issues and may only harden existing fault lines in the region. The United States will therefore need to get comfortable with a security architecture that is going to be messy and likely full of redundancies in its regional organizations, institutions, and cooperation mechanisms. These redundancies need not be treated as a weakness, however. They should instead be looked at as a potential strength that will make the overall network stronger and less likely to break down. Especially in regions with long-standing trust deficits, institutional redundancies are not a pitfall, but an opportunity to bolster ties and build trust through repeated interactions. The United States should therefore determine the existing mechanisms it wants to help strengthen, and to build bridges between them to create an inclusive network spanning the broadest spectrum of actors and issues."