The desire to impress others and gain approval is a natural human inclination. But when a nation seeks to do the same, when a nation endeavors to impress and widen its sphere of influence, it becomes a very complex project fraught with dangers great and small; pregnant with the possibilities of war.
To create influence, nations have a choice between the use of soft power or the imposition of hard power. Obviously, the use of soft power barely contains complications and does not normally lead to war or to the material destruction of another nation and its population.
Yet in the Middle East, the nations of Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have all relentlessly chosen direct use of hard power to assert and further spread their influence; further highlighting their fundamental opposition to the very principles of the UN Charter and civilization; further spotlighting their deeply pernicious intentions towards their neighbors and beyond.