American Alliance Policy in the Middle East, 1945-1992: Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia

provides a stimulating, new look at a U.S. Cold War foreign policy gripped by anticommunist paranoia. Through case studies of America's relationships with Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, John P. Miglietta reveals how an overriding fear of global communism led to the overcommitment of U.S. security resources to the region. The perceived need to preserve Middle East stability rendered U.S. policy ineffectual and unresponsive to changing local conditions, drastically altering the patron-client paradigm to the detriment of American strategic interests. This superb analysis of American foreign policymaking illustrates how Cold War anticommunist ideology prevented the evolution of traditional military alliances into broader-based relationships and perpetuated authoritarian regimes that mired the Middle East in a cycle of poverty and despotism.