AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: 1945 1990
Issue Development and Research Objective
When I first began the research on the topic of American foreign policy towards the Middle East, I was persuaded by often conflicting, but nevertheless frequently persuasive, arguments that the basis of the policy was (1) preservation of American access to crude oil reserves in the Middle East, (2) the protection of the state of Israel, (3) the maintenance of a strategic position to counter the Soviet threat to the United States, and (4) the prevention of international terrorism. Considering, in isolation from one another, the justifications of these factors as bases for American policy toward the Middle East, it was possible to accept the soundness of many of the arguments. When the justifications for these factors were assessed in a holistic sense, however, American foreign policy toward the Middle East often appeared to be (1) internally inconsistent, and (2) reactive rather than proactive at best. At worst, particularly during the first term of the Reagan Administration, it appeared at times as if the American government might be purposefully attempting to act against its own best interests in the Middle East (Haig, 1984).
As my research deepened, however, I detected what seemed to be an underlying objective of American foreign policy toward the Middle East from 1945 onward. Thus, I found it desirable to change the chronological focus of my research from the April 1979 August 1990 period (bounded by the Iranian revolution and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait) to the 1945 1990 period. Prior to the Second World War, the United States was not a major influence in the Middle East. Since that time, however, the United States has exercised a near hegemonic role in the region (Gilpin, 1990; Keohane, 1984).
In this paper, I will argue that the consistent, underlying objective of American foreign policy in the Middle East since 194...