The absence of grand strategy : the United States in the Persian Gulf, 1972-2005 / Steve A. Yetiv.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yetiv, Steven A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Middle East--Foreign relations--United States.

Middle East.

International relations.

United States.

United States--Foreign relations--Middle East.

United States--Foreign relations--1981-1989.

United States--Foreign relations--1989-.

Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988.

Persian Gulf War, 1991.

Iraq War, 2003-2011.

Physical Description:

xi, 250 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Other Title:

United States in the Persian Gulf, 1972-2005

Place of Publication:

Baltimore, MD : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.

Summary:

Great powers and grand strategies. It is easy to assume that the most powerful nations in the world pursue and employ consistent, cohesive, and decisive policies in trying to promote their interests in regions of the world. Popular theory emphasizes two such grand strategies that great powers may pursue toward regions: balance of power policy or hegemonic domination. But, as Steve A. Yetiv contends in his newest study, things may not always be that cut and dried.

Analyzing the evolution of the United States's foreign policy in the Persian Gulf from 1972 to 2005, Yetiv offers a provocative and panoramic view of American strategies in a region critical to the functioning of the entire global economy. Ten cases-from the policies of the Nixon administration to George W. Bush's war in Iraq-reveal shifting, improvised, and reactive policies that were responses to unanticipated and unpredictable events and threats. In fact, the distinguishing feature of the U.S. experience in the Gulf has been the absence of grand strategy.

Yetiv introduces the concept of "reactive engagement" as an alternative and superior approach to understanding the behavior of great powers in unstable regions of the world. At a time when the effects of U.S. foreign policy in the Persian Gulf are rippling across the globe, The Absence of Grand Strategy offers key insight into the nature and evolution of American foreign policy in the Gulf and provides a new framework for understanding and evaluating it.

Contents:

Introduction

Exploring great powers in regions

The Nixon administration's twin pillars

The Reagan administration and the Iran-Iraq War

The Bush administration and constructive engagement

The Iraq War of 1991

The Clinton administration and Saddam Hussein

Containment plus and regime change in Iraq

The Iraq War of 2003

The balance sheet, so to speak

The decline of balance of power policy : theory, strategy and realism

conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [231]-244) and index.

ISBN:

9780801887819

9780801887826

080188781X

0801887828

OCLC:

162502014

Online:

Contributor biographical information

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