ABSTRACT
Despite pre-Desert Storm pledges to depart after evicting Saddam from Kuwait, American military forces after 1991 remained in the Gulf region, fulfilling duties that the British undertook during the previous century and a half: patrolling the waters, protecting the free flow of commerce – beginning in the twentieth century, oil – through the Strait of Hormuz, quelling interstate tensions, and when politicians at home deemed it essential to their national interests, engaging in hostilities ashore. This final chapter examines how America’s military presence became a permanent one in the Gulf, and how in the aftermath of 9/11, America looked away from Saudi Arabia and more toward the littoral states of the Gulf for presence and access as Britain had done earlier.
