ABSTRACT

The dawn of the Cold War marked a new stage of complex U.S. foreign policy involvement in the Middle East. More recently, globalization and the region’s ongoing conflicts and political violence have led to the U.S. being more politically, economically, and militarily enmeshed – for better or worse—throughout the region.

This book examines the emergence and development of U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East from the early 1900s to the present. With contributions from some of the world’s leading scholars, it takes a fresh, interdisciplinary, and insightful look into the many antecedents that led to current U.S. foreign policy. Exploring the historical challenges, regional alliances, rapid political change, economic interests, domestic politics, and other sources of regional instability, this volume comprises critical analysis from Iranian, Turkish, Israeli, American, and Arab perspectives to provide a comprehensive examination of the evolution and transformation of U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East.

This volume is an important resource for scholars and students working in the fields of Political Science, Sociology, International Relations, Islamic, Turkish, Iranian, Arab, and Israeli Studies.

chapter |9 pages

Introduction

US foreign policy in the Middle East

part I|37 pages

Historical Cultural and Economic Interests

chapter 1|17 pages

From “heathen Turks” to “cruel Turks”

Religious and political roots of the changing American perception towards the Middle East

part II|55 pages

Cold War Challenges

part III|70 pages

Balancing Regional Alliances

chapter 7|20 pages

The United States’ strategic relationship with Iran and Turkey

Implications for Cold War and post-Cold War order

chapter 8|17 pages

American-Qatari partnership in the post-Gulf War era

A mutually beneficial relationship

part IV|120 pages

Rapid Political Change and the Spread of Regional Instability

chapter 10|28 pages

When partisanship displaced strategy

American foreign policy and war in Iraq

chapter 11|12 pages

The United States and Political Islam

Dealing with the Egyptian Muslim Brothers in the Arab revolutions

chapter 12|14 pages

Promoting or resisting change?

The United States and the Egyptian uprising, 2011–2012

chapter 13|17 pages

Set-up for failure

The Syria-United States relationship

chapter 14|18 pages

The United States and Iran

The view of the hard-line conservatives in the Islamic Republic

chapter 15|20 pages

Losing hearts and minds

The United States, ideocide, and the propaganda war against ISIS

chapter 16|10 pages

An imperial design or necessity of political economy?

Understanding the underpinnings of a Trump administration