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 antiAmerican)

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 Israels
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. Israels treatment of Palestinian
and Arab people

Dependency on Oil
Middle East Reserves make up 80%
of worlds 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
worlds 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 world
2.Complicated relationships between the
U.S. and Middle Eastern countries
3.The worlds need for oil