The Superpowers and the Middle East: Regional and International Politics, 1955-1967.

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Author: Sullivan, Antony T.
• Date: 22 June 1995

This objective and meticulously researched volume exploits recently declassified sources in the West and newlyavailable Arabic language materials to reassess the turbulent years from Israel's Gaza raid in February of 1995 through the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and its immediate aftermath. Fawaz Gerges focuses on how intensification of the Cold War led to increased superpower intervention in the Middle East, and especially on how superpower competition enabled local powers to manipulate their great-power patrons to advance their own regional ambitions. Indeed, the bargaining position of regional powers increased, Gerges argues, in "direct proportion to the growing hostilities between the United States and the Soviet Union" (p. 245). Both the US and the USSR felt obliged to compete fiercely for local clients, thereby enabling major Arab states and Israel to "manipulate the polarized international system to gain political, economic, and military concessions" (p. 245). In fact, the superpowers were frequently unable decisively to influence developments in the Middle East, Gerges maintains, and consistently failed to convert overwhelming military strength into direct political influence. Nevertheless, importing the Cold War into the Middle East exacerbated local conflicts arid made their resolution more difficult, he observes, and had "devastating repercussions for the security. and stability of the whole...