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 world 2.Complicated relationships between the U.S. and Middle Eastern countries 3.The world’s need for oil