Kimberly Marten’s new policy memo in PONARS Eurasia addresses the decline of Russia’s reputation and status in the Middle East since the peak of its post-Soviet presence there in 2023. “In sum, the relative power balance in the Middle East has shifted away from Russia, in favor of the United States and Turkey,” Marten writes. She suggests, based on recent social sciences scholarship on status and international relations, that these losses could cause Russia to act more aggressively in other parts of the world. “It is always risky to anthropomorphize nation-states and apply findings from individual psychology to state behavior. Yet the burgeoning literature on status and international relations finds that states, including Russia, are concerned about relative status and status deficits, and can react emotionally when they perceive that they have lost status in comparison to a peer (in Russia’s case, the United States),” she writes.