The Middle East and the United States : history, politics, and ideologies / edited by David W. Lesch, Mark L. Haas.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The ironic legacy of the King-Crane Commission / James Gelvin -- The "Ambassador for the Arabs" : the Locke mission and the unmaking of US development diplomacy in the Near East, 1952-1953 / Paul W.T. Kingston -- US foreign policy toward Iran during the Mussadiq Era / Mark Gasiorowski -- The Mussadiq Era in Iran, 1951-1953: a contemporary diplomat's view / Sir Sam Falle -- National security concerns in US policy toward Egypt, 1949-1956 / Peter Hahn -- The perils of ambiguity: the United States and the Baghdad Pact / Elie Podeh -- The 1957 American-Syrian crisis: globalist policy in a regional reality / David W. Lesch -- The United States and Nasserist Pan-Arabism / Malik Mufti -- The Soviet perception of the US threat / Georgiy Mirsky -- The Superpowers and the Cold War in the Middle East / Rashid Khalidi -- The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: US actions and Arab perceptions / Fawaz A. Gerges -- Flawed strategies and missed signals: crisis bargaining between the Superpowers, October 1973 / Janice Gross Stein -- The United States and Israel: the nature of a special relationship / Bernard Reich and Shannon Powers -- From Madrid and Oslo to Camp David: the United States and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1991-2001 / Jeremy Pressman -- George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict / Robert O. Freedman -- Fight or talk: US-Syrian relations since 2000 / David W. Lesch -- Americans and the Muslim world--first encounters / Robert J. Allison -- The United States in the Persian Gulf: from twin pillars to dual containment / Gary Sick -- From "over the horizon" to "into the backyard": the US-Saudi relationship in the Gulf / F. Gregory Gause III -- The Iraq War of 2003: why did the United States decide to invade? / Steve A. Yetiv -- What went wrong in Iraq? / Ali R. Abootalebi -- The push and pull of strategic cooperation: the US relationship with Turkey in the Middle East / Henri J. Barkey -- The United States and Afghanistan: from marginality to strategic concern / Marvin G. Weinbaum -- Ideology and Iran's American policies, 1997-2008 / Mark L. Haas -- Is it time for the United States to give up on Arab liberals? / Jon B. Alterman -- Islamist perceptions of US policy in the Middle East / Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad -- US relations with al-Qa'ida / Heather S. Gregg -- New US policies for a new Middle East? / William B. Quandt.

The fifth edition of the acclaimed The Middle East and the United States brings together scholars and diplomats from the Middle East, Europe, and North America to provide an objective, cross-cultural assessment of U.S. policy toward the Middle East. This new edition has been substantially revised and updated into the Obama administration to explore such topics as: the 2003 Iraq War and why the U.S. decided to invade; Islamist perceptions of U.S. involvement in the Middle East; and the relationships between the U.S. and Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Afghanistan. The Middle East and the United States also features five entirely new chapters discussing the superpowers and the Middle East throughout the Cold War; the Bush and Obama administrations and the Arab-Israeli conflict; contemporary U.S.-Syrian relations; the importance of ideology to US-Iranian relations under the last three administrations; and U.S. relations with Al Qaeda. A reorganization of the contributions in the fifth edition also places greater emphasis on current events. -- Back cover.