The Intimate Jaw: How Europe and the Arab World Are Being Squeezed into Strategic Poverty

The usual map of geopolitics places enemies outside a region and allies inside its security perimeter. That map no longer explains Europe or the Arab world. I propose a different model: the intimate-jaw pliers.

Each region is squeezed between two powers. One is an overt military challenger. The other claims civilizational or religious kinship and presents itself as protector, yet converts protection into leverage. For EU-centred Europe, the visible jaw is Russia and the intimate jaw is the United States. For the Arab state system, the visible jaw is Israel and the intimate jaw is the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This is a structural comparison, not a claim of moral or legal equivalence. The actors and methods differ profoundly. Nor does the theory require coordination. Pliers work because two pressures converge, not because the jaws share a plan.

The jaw that calls itself family

Washington describes Europe and America as heirs to a shared Western civilization.1 Tehran invokes Islamic unity, resistance and support for oppressed Muslims.4 Both languages contain genuine ties. Both can also conceal hierarchy.

The United States protects Europe through NATO, but benefits from European dependence on American intelligence, weapons, technology, finance and energy. European purchases of US liquefied natural gas surged after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.3 Defence spending is rising rapidly, while Europe still lacks an integrated defence-industrial and command structure. Donald Trump’s renewed July 2026 demand that the United States control Greenland, despite Danish sovereignty, makes the danger visible: an alliance can be reinterpreted as a right of supervision over the ally.2 MAGA did not create Atlantic asymmetry; it stripped away its diplomatic varnish.

Iran plays a comparable structural role through different instruments. Since the 1979 revolution, and especially after Iraq ceased to function as a regional buffer in 2003, Tehran has built influence through armed movements, political parties, religious networks, missiles and security relationships in Arab states. It speaks in the language of Islamic solidarity and resistance to Israel. The practical result has often been divided sovereignty, parallel armed authority and Arab territories exposed to retaliation.

The intimate jaw says: we belong to the same civilization, and only our........

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