This prospect provides good reason for the United States to bring Iran to heel, not by bombing it, but by pursuing a cautious strategy of normalization that ultimately undermines its hardliners and guides Iran back to the regional fold. Deft U.S. diplomacy can help weaken a regime that already appears to be losing its popularity and its grip on power. Especially when it comes to foreign policy, there are other centers of authority in Iran that bemoan the country’s growing isolation and favor a more pragmatic course.

That said, even if Iran continues its confrontational ways, the GCC should still seek to take the lead in promoting regional integration, extending commerce and the habits of cooperation to Iraq. If Iran does ultimately pursue a more moderate course, then the GCC will be poised to provide a cooperative framework for the region as a whole, capitalizing on a Gulf no longer threatened by the hegemonic ambitions of either Iraq or Iran.

Should a reinvigorated GCC lead a cooperative security order in the Gulf, the United States would be able to lighten its load in the region, a necessary step to restore U.S. standing abroad as well as political consensus at home. After Vietnam, the Nixon Doctrine stipulated that the United States would look to local states to carry more of the burden for their own security. After Iraq, a similar doctrine is in the offing. And with Iran still a foe and Iraq in shambles, the GCC provides the logical–if not the only–alternative to U.S. power, even if it admittedly needs to deepen its own institutionalization, collective character, and trust among its members. It has the experience in regional integration as well as the requisite military and economic assets. It is poised to have a strengthened hand in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and in Lebanon and Syria. Its close ties to the United States would ensure considerable U.S. influence over regional developments. Moreover, since such influence would be less overt, flowing through regional intermediaries, it will be more politically palatable–which is particularly important after the damage done to America’s image in the Middle East by the Iraq war.

During the Cold War, West European nations took advantage of America’s strategic umbrella to integrate with one another, ultimately locking in a stable peace and ending their dependence upon U.S. power. In similar fashion, GCC states should not have to choose between alliance with the United States and regional integration; the two options should work in unison, eventually leading to a Gulf region that no longer needs to rely on the United States as an external protector.