Quagmire: America in the Middle East

With the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, is there any remaining reason for the United States to be a major participant in Middle Eastern politics? Leon Hadar says no in this incisive book, Quagmire: America in the Middle East. Hadar, a former UN bureau chief for the Jerusalem Post who teaches political science at the American University in Washington, writes that it is time to rethink America's decades-old Middle Eastern policy, which was fashioned in the crucible of the Cold War. He challenges the public and policymakers to break out of the mold of obsolete thinking and to take a fresh look at taken-for-granted premises. Quagmire begins by noting that dramatic changes in the old Soviet bloc in 1989 and 1990 had begun to force a reconsideration of America's international role-until Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. "Foreign policy pa:radigms die hard," Hadar writes in his preface. "Both Arabs and Israelis and their supporters in Washington were attempting to draw the United States back into active diplomatic and military involvement in the Middle East. Their efforts were seconded by those of frustrated Cold Warriors who hoped that perceived threats emanating from the Middle East would give rise to new calls for military expenditures and intervention." One effect of the Iraqi crisis and ensuing war was to temporarily save the foreign policy establishment from a painful readjustment.