ABSTRACT
For at least the next decade the control of the Persian Gulf will be a key factor in calculations about the relative global balance of power between the Western industrial countries and the Soviet Union. As a result of the revolution in Iran, the Western countries have lost great political, economic and military leverage over the local countries of the Gulf and the adjacent regions. If the Soviet Union, by direct or indirect means, were able to outmanoeuvre the West and gain strategic control of Iran, the impact upon the security of the rest of the Gulf and ultimately the Western alliance system would be extremely grave, in many ways as serious as overt Soviet hostilities in Europe and the Far East.
