The Gulf wars and the United States : shaping the twenty-first century / Orrin Schwab.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schwab, Orrin, 1956-

Contributor:

Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

Series:

PSI reports (Westport, Conn.)

PSI reports

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Persian Gulf War, 1991.

Iraq War, 2003-2011.

Military policy.

United States--Foreign relations--1989-.

United States.

International relations.

United States--Military policy--20th century.

United States--Military policy--21st century.

Physical Description:

x, 167 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Westport, Conn. : Praeger Security International, 2009.

Summary:

Schwab's work is a five-part analysis of U.S. policy and strategy in the Persian Gulf from 1990 to 2003. He begins the work by analyzing the prominence of the Persian Gulf in U.S. global strategic thinking during the last decade of the Cold War. By that time, gulf oil had secured a paramount place in the minds of the Reagan and Bush administrations. Part two dissects the relationship individuals and regional governments in the Persian Gulf shared with the U.S. Here, Schwab also examines U.S. perceptions of those entities and demonstrates how they helped shape U.S. policy and define the status of those nations in the eyes of U.S. policymakers.

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, the paradigm shifted dramatically. Part three examines U.S. decision-making in the period immediately after that invasion. Schwab demonstrates that while forging a broad coalition to turn back Iraq was a significant diplomatic achievement, the international determination that defined the conflict in 1990-1991 eroded and gave way to a cumbersome policy of containment. That policy ultimately resulted in the dissolution of the coalition forged by the first Bush administration and burdened his successors as they struggled to achieve the long-standing goal of creating stability throughout the region.

Part four explores the efforts of the Clinton and second Bush administrations in the Gulf. Saddam was one of the primary concerns of the Clinton administration, but so too were al-Qaeda, North Korea, China, and especially Yugoslavia. Indeed, his was the first administration to truly attempt to deal with these kinds of problems in a post-Cold War world. Despite their differences, there was a tremendous amount of continuity in the policies pursued by Clinton and George W. Bush. September 11 changed that, however, as Schwab chronicles in part five. In this section, he explores how the current administration's adoption of a more proactive strategy of retaliation and preventative war has given rise to a new national security regime, increasingly designed to fight asymmetric war while eliminating perceived threats to our national security and interests.

Contents:

The Gulf wars and American foreign relations

The Persian Gulf and the late Cold War

The first Gulf war

The interregnum: Clinton and the Gulf

The third act: George W. Bush and the Gulf

The second Gulf war

The liberal technocratic order in the Persian Gulf.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [135]-162) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

9780275997540

0275997545

OCLC:

233543989