ABSTRACT
The chapters of this volume have underlined impressively one of the assumptions of the analysis – that to fully grasp the different dimensions of U.S. foreign policy in a speci c regional order of the international system and, in particular, its potential to in uence and transform regional dynamics, it is necessary to conceptualize U.S. policy goals and their implementation as being dependent on those variables which have been elaborated in the introduction: The conditions of the American political system, intra-regional dynamics, domestic politics in the states of a region and, nally, the interaction of the U.S. and other international powers regarding that regional order. The outcomes of U.S. foreign policy very much depend on those variables. They determine whether the United States can be in uential in a regional order, when and under what circumstances. This applies in general, but to U.S. policy towards the Persian Gulf in particular. And therefore the new presidential administration, which will take of ce in January 2009, has to take into consideration those basic parameters when designing its Gulf policy.
