U.S. Interests
This vital waterway near Iran is the world’s most important oil chokepoint.
What is the Strait of Hormuz?
This rising power uses the Belt and Road Initiative to build influence in the Middle East.
What is China?
This major Gulf state views Iran as its primary security threat and seeks regional leadership.
What is Saudi Arabia?
The Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and this group of Arab states.
What are the Gulf states
These non-state threats—like ISIS-K and Al-Qaeda affiliates—remain a key challenge despite U.S. troop reductions.
What are violent extremist organizations (VEOs)?
US and Britain conducted a coup to depose a prime minister from what country in the Middle East.
What is Iran
Russia’s most significant CENTCOM-area military involvement is in this country’s civil war.
What is Syria?
This country’s top priority is stopping Iran’s nuclear program and deterring Hezbollah.
What is Israel?
This proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran has produced one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
What is the Yemen civil war?
This economic resource remains globally vital despite renewable energy growth, reinforcing the region’s
What is oil?
Department in charge of policy when interacting with other countries
Department of State (DOS)
This country’s government collapsed in 2021, shifting regional counterterrorism dynamics.
What is Afghanistan?
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and others follow “multi-vector” foreign policies to balance Russia, China, and the U.S.
What are the Central Asian States?
This extremist group, active in Afghanistan, poses growing threats to Central Asia and the U.S.
What is ISIS-K?
U.S. partnerships in the Gulf increasingly rely on this type of defense system to counter Iran’s missiles and drones.
What are integrated air and missile defense systems (IADS)?
USCENTCOM’s Lines of Effort
What is Deter Iran, Counter
Violent Extremist Organizations, and Compete Strategically advance our national
interests for a stronger, more secure, and more prosperous America
This small but wealthy Gulf state has outsized diplomatic influence and hosted the Taliban talks.
What is Qatar?
This nation seeks strategic depth against India and plays a critical role in Afghanistan’s stability.
What is Pakistan?
This disputed plateau between Israel and Syria is a recurring security flashpoint.
What is the Golan Heights?
This phenomenon—large movements of civilians fleeing conflict—will shape the region’s humanitarian future.
What are refugee and migration crises?
Protecting these global economic flows is a key economic interest for the U.S. in CENTCOM.
What are international oil and energy supplies?
This country, CENTCOM’s newest formal partner, was moved from EUCOM to CENTCOM in 2021.
What is Israel?
This country’s regime uses ballistic missiles, proxies, and nuclear ambitions to secure itself and counter the U.S.
What is Iran?
Since the 1979 revolution, Iran’s strategic objectives
Preserve the Regime, drive an ideological alternative to the West, and destroy the State
of Israel.
CENTCOM increasingly relies on these unmanned systems for intelligence and maritime monitoring.
What are drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/RPAs)?