ABSTRACT
The Clinton administration’s military and political priorities with regard to the Middle East in 1993–1994 can only be analyzed and understood against the backdrop of the administration’s approach to foreign affairs in general. The administration came into office with a high degree of awareness that it would have neither the time nor the resources for foreign affairs that its predecessors enjoyed. Clinton had been elected to handle America’s domestic socioeconomic problems-from health care to welfare reform-without increasing the national debt that had figured so prominently as an issue in the 1992 elections.
