Blackwell Reference Online

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Since 1967, the Middle East has posed a series of great challenges to the United States. The region's Cold War dynamics, intra-regional rivalries, anti-American nationalism, and wars and revolutions have tested the resolve of US diplomats. Americans have found it difficult clearly to understand the region's multiplicity of cultures, religions, ethnic groups, and political systems. Historians, political scientists, journalists, and others have recorded and analyzed the legacy of US involvement with the region. This essay seeks to identify and analyze the most significant works of scholarship dealing with US diplomacy in the Middle East since 1967. General US policy in the Middle East since 1967 is included in a number of overview, synthetic, and interpretive works that range over the post-1945 period. Tillman (1982) , Fraser (1989) , and Lenczowski (1990) evaluate the relative importance of such objectives as access to oil, containment of Soviet influence, preservation of Israel, and domestic political interests in the making of US policy in the region since World War II. During the Cold War, Sayigh and Shlaim (1997) conclude, the local powers of the Middle East resisted US pressures in their international, regional, and domestic politics. Brands (1994) , a text suitable for undergraduate instruction, covers the broad parameters of US policy. Several works adopt specific interpretive ... log in or subscribe to read full text