<p>How do US policymakers respond to the growing influence of US partners outside of their immediate neighborhood and into third regions? In an era of global politics characterized by increasingly independent-minded middle powers– many formal partners of the US– with global ambitions and an ability to project power beyond their neighborhood, this question is fundamental to US alliance management strategy and 21st century global order. Since 2011, no dynamic has better illustrated this new feature of global politics than the political, economic, and military rise of enterprising Middle Eastern states across the African continent. This includes the UAE, Qatar, and Turkey, each of whom are, in different ways, important pillars of the US alliance network in the Middle East. This paper traces how the US has responded to the expanding influence of its Middle Eastern partners in Africa and why it chose the approaches it did. It argues that the US largely pursued strategies of encouragement and accommodation that sought to align the conduct of these countries with US goals across Africa and the Middle East. Yet it acquiesced when its Middle Eastern partners pursued policies out of step with US objectives in Africa. This reflected US strategic prioritization, as US policymakers prioritized alignment with their Gulf and Turkish partners on key Middle Eastern issues, over and above any strategic goals the US may have had in Africa. The paper draws on case studies from the Horn of Africa and Libya in making its argument.</p>