U.S. Interests in the Middle East

Regional Stability

• U.S. policy in the Middle East from the 1940s through the 1960s was a defensive measure to protect its own interests in the area and prevent countries from becoming hostile to the U.S.

• “Twin Pillar” Strategy: U.S. maintained close relationships with Saudi Arabia and Iran, fell apart when Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan

Collapse of “Twin Pillar”

• 1. Carter Doctrine: attempt by any outside force to control Persian Gulf will be seen as an assault on the US and repelled by military force

• 2. the U.S. improved its military forces• 3. U.S. sided with Iraq when war broke out

with Iran (who was extremely anti-American)

U.S. and Israel

• 1. Supporter of a Jewish state and sympathy for the Holocaust victims

• 2. Israel was seen as a US ally during the Cold War

• 3. Israel has often been a Middle Eastern ally of the U.S. historically being the only democratic country

• 4. American Jewish community has supported Israel

Disagreements with Israel

• 1. U.S. refusal to see Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip as legitimate

• 2. encouragement of Israeli citizens and Jewish immigrants to move into the West Bank

• 3. Israel’s treatment of Palestinian and Arab people

Dependency on Oil

• Middle East Reserves make up 80% of world’s known reserves

• U.S. dependency on the Middle East make up about 8-12%

• Western Europe imports about 33% of its oil from the Middle East

• Japan imports about 50% of its oil from the Middle East

Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait

• Role of oil: If Saddam Hussein was completely successful, he would have control of about 54% of the world’s oil reserves

Weapons of Mass Destruction

• A. Nuclear Weapons: Israel, Iran, Iraq, Libya have the ability or have already developed nuclear weapons

• B. After the Persian Gulf War, the U.S. was amazed to discover just how advanced the Iraqi nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs were

Human Rights

• 1. Defining human rights among different regions in the world (for example: if a religion teaches that women should be subservient to men, are their rights being violated?)

• 2. Deciding what policies the U.S. should implement (for example: should the U.S. apply political or economic pressure on a country to change its human rights practices?)

Human Rights Issues

• Difficult to resolve in the Middle East? Why?• Because of:1. long standing religious and political conflicts

that have occurred in this region of the world2.Complicated relationships between the U.S.

and Middle Eastern countries3.The world’s need for oil