Solutionist

http://www.vox.com/2014/8/13/5991047/how-america-lost-the-middle-east

All in all, this is another good piece from Vox, but oddly there was no talk of re-drawing the borders of the Middle East.

If the major problem is a swirling maelstrom of ethnic and sectarian tensions that leads to civil war, then why not change the borders?  If the US can only influence state actors, why not create states that reflect those ethnic and sectarian realities?

This will likely lead to an unpleasant Sunni fundamentalist regime in the Levant - even if they could get rid of ISIL.  But eventually, a Sunni state in that region would need to govern.  The Morsi government failed to govern and was overthrown.   The Al Maliki government couldn't accommodate the Sunni and collapsed in the face of civil war.

But if a government was secure in its ethnic and sectarian composition, then it could address political and economic questions, rather than tribal, ethnic and sectarian questions.

Having a more homogeneous populace can great help the creation of more stable, representative governments.  Slovenia is doing just fine thank you.  And while Bosnia still requires the presence of IFOR, it's a far cry from 1994.

Europe redrew its borders for centuries before they could create stable nation-states.

Why are we denying the rights of the Middle East to do the same?