--- title: Five Best: The U.S. Used to Be A Wingman in the Middle East description: Normally the U.S. is a good wingman in the Middle East, why does exercise boost brain function and more. canonical: https://time.com/5021342/the-u-s-used-to-be-a-good-wingman-in-the-middle-east/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-13T17:00:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:21.006Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The U.S. Used to Be A Good Wingman in the Middle East og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/5021342/the-u-s-used-to-be-a-good-wingman-in-the-middle-east/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The U.S. Used to Be A Good Wingman in the Middle East twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The U.S. Used to Be A Good Wingman in the Middle East by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 13, 2017 5:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 13, 2017 5:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Normally the U.S. is a good wingman in the Middle East. What happened?**](https://www.lawfareblog.com/america-bad-wingman-middle-east) By Daniel Byman in _Lawfare_ **2\.** [**Why does exercise boost brain function? You can thank our hunter-gatherer ancestors.**](https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/ua-research-brains-evolved-need-exercise) By Alexis Blue at the _University of Arizona_ **3\.** [**These light-emitting pajamas could help babies with jaundice.**](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/these-light-emitting-pajamas-could-help-treat-newborns-with-jaundice-180967147/) By Emily Matchar in _Smithsonian_ **4\.** [**Here’s a clever method for decluttering your home.**](https://news.osu.edu/news/2017/06/26/preserving-memories/) By Jeff Grabmeier in the _Ohio State University News_ **5\.** [**Talking touch and taste helps marketers sell you on their products.**](https://news.byu.edu/news/now-or-later-how-taste-and-sound-matter-affect-when-you-buy) By Todd Hollingshead at _Brigham Young University_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5021342/the-u-s-used-to-be-a-good-wingman-in-the-middle-east/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5021342/the-u-s-used-to-be-a-good-wingman-in-the-middle-east/"},"headline":"The U.S. Used to Be A Good Wingman in the Middle East","datePublished":"2017-11-13T17:00:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:21.006Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/5021342/the-u-s-used-to-be-a-good-wingman-in-the-middle-east/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Innovation","Exercise","Babies","marketing","Middle East"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5021342/the-u-s-used-to-be-a-good-wingman-in-the-middle-east/","name":"The U.S. Used to Be A Good Wingman in the Middle East"}}]}] ```