ABSTRACT
One of the central developments in the Middle East since the early 1980s has been the rise of the Iranian threat. By mid-1994 it was perceived as projected in several directions: toward Iran’s neighbors, toward other moderate Arab regimes, toward American and western interests in the Middle East, and toward Israel. The potential of the Iranian threat was perceived as especially high due to its wide scope, the extremist ideology feeding it, and the difficulty of meeting it with adequate countermeasures. In the view of many governments, the Iranian threat might constitute the main source of future instability in the Middle East-the outcome of both the rise of the radical Islamic movement, led by Iran, as well as of its expected military buildup.
