QUESTION 1: Compare and Contrast the central goals and methods of Soviet/Russian and American Middle East policy in the period between World War II and the present.
The middle east has traditionally been a region of conflict between the Russian Empire and the dominant Western Empire, which was Great Britain until 1945, and the United States since then. This has been based on a western view that Russia was expanding southward towards warmer climates in search of additional resources. This policy was continued by the Soviet Union as the successor state to the Russian Empire.
U.S. - U.S.S.R. CONFLICTS IN THE MID-EAST:
The relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union in the Middle East was governed for more than four decades, from the end of World War II to the end of the Reagan presidency, by the Cold War with all of the attendant assumptions, concepts, institutions and policies essential to "fight" the Cold War. American views of the Soviet Union and of the Soviet bloc, and the policy requirements deriving from that perspective, formed the core of United States foreign and security policy worldwide.
The Middle East is a region to which the superpowers attached great significance and in which they evidenced great interest. The United States and the Soviet Union became the major external powers of consequence in the Middle East in the period since the end of World War II but particularly since the mid 1950s and the retirement of British and French influence from the region. The Soviet Union strongly believed that it had a legitimate role in the Middle East, based on its proximity, security interests, and its long standing connections with many of the states in the region. Moscow also had an interest in wanting to limit American presence and influence in the region.
The first significant official United States policy statement concerning the Middle East came after World War II, in the form of the Truma...