With thriving economies came increased strategic clout, leading to the rise of regional geopolitics shaped by national interests and fears, rather than by external forces. The West’s failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, followed by the global economic crisis (which exposed severe structural weaknesses in the US and the EU that their democratic governments have been unable to resolve), accelerated this process.
和经济繁荣一起到来的是战略实力的增加，这使得地区地缘政治开始受国家利益和忧虑主导，而不再是外部势力。西方在伊朗和阿富汗的失败，以及随后的全球经济危机（暴露了美国和欧盟的民主政府无法解决的严重的结构性弱点）加速了这一过程。