The Cold War in the Middle East, 1950-1991 examines American and Soviet involvement in the Middle East, and how each superpower's policies and alliances contributed to its overall Cold War strategies.

The Cold War has been researched in minute detail and written about at great length but it remains one of the most elusive and enigmatic conflicts of modern times. With the ending of the Cold War, it is now possible to review the entire post-war period, to examine the Cold War as history. The Middle East occupies a special place in the history of the Cold War. It was critical to its birth, its life and its demise. In the aftermath of the Second World War, it became one of the major theatres of the Cold War on account of its strategic importance and its oil resources. The key to the international politics of the Middle East during the Cold War era is the relationship between external powers and local powers. Most of the existing literature on the subject focuses on the policies of the Great Powers towards the local region. The Cold War and the Middle East redresses the balance by concentrating on the policies of the local actors. It looks at the politics of the region not just from the outside in but from the inside out. The contributors to this volume are leading scholars in the field whose interests combine International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies.

Bruce Kuniholm takes a regional perspective to focus on postwar diplomacy in Iran, Turkey, and Greece and efforts in these countries to maintain their independence from the Great Powers. Drawing on a wide variety of secondary sources, government documents, private papers, unpublished memoirs, and extensive interviews with key figures, he shows how the traditional struggle for power along the Northern Tier was a major factor in the origins and development of the Cold War between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Originally published in 1980. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

A lucid and provocative analysis of the legacy of the Cold War in the Middle East. During the 45 years of the Cold War, policymakers from the United States and the Soviet Union vied for primacy in the Middle East. Their motives, long held by historians to have had an ideological thrust, were, in fact, to gain control over access to oil and claim geographic and strategic advantage. In his new book, Rashid Khalidi, considered the foremost U.S. historian of the Middle East, makes the compelling case that the dynamics that played out during the Cold War continue to exert a profound influence even decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The pattern of superpower intervention during the Cold War deeply affected and exacerbated regional and civil wars throughout the Middle East, and the carefully calculated maneuvers fueled by the fierce competition between the United States and the USSR actually provoked breakdowns in fragile democracies. To understand the momentous events that have occurred in the region over the last two decades-including two Gulf wars, the occupation of Iraq, and the rise of terrorism-we must, Khalidi argues, understand the crucial interplay of Cold War powers there from 1945 to 1990. Today, the legacy of the Cold War continues in American policies and approaches to the Middle East that have shifted from a deadly struggle against communism to a War on Terror, and from opposing the Evil Empire to targeting the Axis of Evil. The current U.S. deadlock with Iran and the upsurge of American-Russian tensions in the wake of the conflict in Georgia point to the continued centrality of the Middle East in American strategic attention. Today, with a new administration in Washington, understanding and managing the full impact of this dangerous legacy in order to move America toward a more constructive and peaceful engagement in this critical arena is of the utmost importance. Review Publisher's Weekly - January 5, 2009 "Khalidi provides a compelling history of modern conflict in the Middle East, arguing that current conflicts are by-products of the cold war and the policies, strategies and priorities of the United States and the Soviet Union. . . . Khalidi has written an important book, essential for anyone concerned about the stability of the Middle East." Review Kirkus - January 1, 2009 "Though this brief work doesn't aim to be an exhaustive survey, it ably gets the reader up to speed on many of the disputes that have made the Middle East a flashpoint in today's U.S. foreign policy. . . . Concise look at a crucial period in one of the world's most explosive regions." Quotes "A stunningly clear analysis of the geopolitics of Middle East conflicts from 1945 to today. A book not to be missed." -Immanuel Wallerstein, author of European Universalism: The Rhetoric of Power

For more than three decades, the Soviet Union was a major force in the Middle East, and superpower rivalry exacerbated many of the conflicts endemic to the region. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union have fundamentally altered the rules of the game in Middle East politics, producing a new fluidity in the region, new diplomatic alignments, and new opportunities for peace. The contributors place recent developments in historical and political context, analyzing changes in Soviet Middle East policy under Gorbachev as well as evaluating developments since the demise of the Soviet Union. The evolution of Moscow's policy toward the Arab states, Israel, the P.L.O., and the U.N. is given special attention. The contributors also examine the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism in the new states of Central Asia and weigh the potential implications of this development for the Middle East. In addition, they discuss security issues related to the transfer of military technology from former Soviet republics to the countries of the Middle East.

At the height of the Cold War, the John F. Kennedy administration designed an ambitious plan for the Middle East-its aim was to seek rapprochement with Nasser's Egypt in order to keep the Arab world neutral and contain the perceived communist threat. In order to offset this approach, Kennedy sought to grow relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and embrace Israel's defense priorities-a decision which would begin the US-Israeli 'special relationship'. Here, Antonio Perra shows for the first time how new relations with Saudi Arabia and Israel which would come to shape the Middle East for decades were in fact a by-product of Kennedy's efforts at Soviet containment. The Saudi's in particular were increasingly viewed as 'an atavistic regime who would soon disappear' but Kennedy's support for them-which hardened during the Yemen Crisis even as he sought to placate Nasser-had the unintended effect of making them, as today, the US' great pillar of support in the Middle East.

A new interpretation of the Cold War from the perspective of the smaller and middle powers in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

At the height of the Cold War, the US sought to maintain power and influence in the Greater Middle East - the region from Morocco to India - in the context of a growing threat from Russia and the decline of British imperialism. This original and important study illuminates this tense period in international relations, offering many new insights into the global situation of the 1950s and 1960s. Roby Barrett casts fresh light on US foreign policy under Eisenhower and Kennedy, illuminating the struggles of two American administrations to deal with massive social, economic, and political change in an area sharply divided by regional and Cold War rivalries. With a dramatic backdrop of revolutionary Arab nationalism, Zionism, indigenous Communism, teetering colonial empires, unstable traditional monarchies, oil, territorial disputes and the threat of Soviet domination of the region, this book vividly highlights the fundamental similarities between the goals and application of foreign policy in the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations as well as the impact of British influence on the process. Drawing on extensive research in archives and document collections from Kansas to Canberra as well as numerous interviews with key policy makers and observers from both the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, Roby Barrett explores the application of the Cold War containment policy through economic development and security assistance. Within the broader context of the global Cold War struggle, the Greater Middle East also held the potential as the flashpoint for nuclear war, and Barrett analyses fully the implications of this for international relations. In the process this book draws some unexpected conclusions, arguing that Eisenhower's policies were ultimately more successful than Kennedy's, and offers an important and revisionist contribution to our understanding of the Cold War and the Middle East.

This clear, balanced and authoritative survey of the history of the region is now fully up to date again. The text contains a general regional introduction, followed by a series of country-by-country analyses, and a section which places the Near East in the international context. Professor Yapp' s new edition covers recent dramatic events including the end of the Cold War, the Kuwayt Crisis of 1990/91, and the continuing conflict in Israel, as well as assessing the huge social and economic changes in the region. It will be essential reading for students and scholars concerned with modern middle eastern history and politics of the middle east.