America and the Persian Gulf: Third Party Dimension in World Politics Book

This study examines how the Iranian revolution, the war in Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq war, and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait affected American security (in the Persian Gulf region) over a 15-year period--a case study of what the author calls the third party dimension in world politics. Applying an innovative framework for conflict analysis, Yetiv shows that regional conflicts in and near the Middle East, initially meant to challenge U.S. power and interests, actually reversed the decline of United States' influence suffered after the Iranian revolution, prepared the U.S. for Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and made the U.S. better able to protect the volatile Persian Gulf and its own security interests. This re-examination of the dynamics of power and conflict will be of interest to scholars in international relations, foreign policy theory and practice, and history.Read More