THE MIDDLE EAST IN CRISIS
$14.95, 189 pages
ISBN: 0-87609-317-9
Publication Date: 2002

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Summary: In the late 1990s, things seemed to be going fairly well for the United States in the Middle East. The peace process between Israel and its Arab neighbors was inching forward, Iraq remained under international quarantine, reformers were gaining ground in Iran, and Osama bin Laden was holed up in a remote Afghan hideaway. American policymakers surveying the scene had legitimate grounds for satisfaction and even hope. Then the roof fell in. The Syrian track of the peace process was derailed and the Palestinian track soon followed. In Iraq Saddam Hussein began to extricate himself from the "box" in which the United States had tried to keep him confined, and in Iran it became clear that the reformers were stymied by an old guard determined to resist liberalization. And then came September 11, 2001. The various Middle East crises are now the dominant items on the American foreign policy agenda, and this collection offers a searching look at all of them. Originally published in Foreign Affairs, the essays bring the reader up to speed on the dizzying events of the last few years in the region and offer a unique basis for informed discussion of where to go from here.