Superpower Involvement in the Middle East
Westview Special Studies
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About the Book and Editors
The contributors to this book offer an explanation of Soviet and U.S. policy in the Middle East by exploring how the superpowers define their goals in the region, the factors that both stimulate and constrain the United States and the Soviet Union in the implementation of their objectives, and how their mutual perceptions influence behavior.
The chapters on Soviet foreign policy explore Soviet perceptions of U.S. military and political strengths and weaknesses in the region, continued fears of a superpower confrontation arising from escalating regional conflicts, the challenges posed by Islamic fundamentalism, the pressures of client demands, and the nature of internal power struggles between competing Soviet foreign policy elites.
Faulty assumptionstheir content and originare a central theme of the chapters on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Such assumptions are reflected in excessive U.S. concern with Middle East oil, inaccurate perceptions of the PLO moderation, an inappropriate transfer of Western ideals of democracy and the nation-state to the Middle East, and an unsophisticated application of the East-West ideological struggle to the conflict in the Middle East.
This volume makes a major contribution to our understanding of Soviet and U.S. policy in the 1980s, highlighting explanatory variables that are likely to persist into the next decade.
Paul Marantz is associate professor of political science at the University of British Columbia. lema S. Steinberg is associate professor of political science at McGill University.
To our children Adam, Donna, Margot, and Monica
Superpower Involvement in the Middle East
Dynamics of Foreign Policy
edited by Paul Marantz and Blema S. Steinberg
First published 1985 by Westview Press, Inc.
Published 2019 by Routledge
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Copyright 1985 Taylor & Francis
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Superpower involvement in the Middle East.
Includes index.
1. Near EastForeign relationsSoviet Union Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Soviet Union Foreign relationsNear EastAddresses, essays, lectures. 3. Near EastForeign relationsUnited StatesAddresses, essays, lectures. 4. United StatesForeign relationsNear EastAddresses, essays, lectures. I. Marantz, Paul. II. Steinberg, Blema S.
DS63.2.S65S87 1985 327.56 85-13617
ISBN 13: 978-0-367-28919-5 (hbk)
Contents
S. N. MacFarlane
Card R. Saivetz
Herbert L. Sawyer
Robert O. Freedman
Dina Rome Spechler
David G. Haglund
Martin Indyk
James R. Kurth
John H. Sigler
Shmuel Sandler
Blema S. Steinberg
The deep involvement of the United States Mid the Soviet Union in the Middle East has had a critical impact on both their bilateral relations and the politics of the region. This volume analyzes the role of the superpowers, paying special attention to the underlying patterns which help explain how they have perceived their options as well as the policies and goals they have chosen to pursue. The continuing sources of conflict between the superpowers as well as the limited prospects for future cooperation are also examined.
The articles in this volume are revised and up-dated versions of papers originally prepared for presentation at the annual scholarly conference of the Canadian Professors for Peace in the Middle East which was held at the University of Toronto in June 1984. The editors would like to express their appreciation to the many people who assisted in the preparation of this book. Dr. Eva Dessen, the tireless Executive Director of the CPPME, did a superb job of handling the many details of the conference and in providing highly professional editorial assistance. Ogden Gavanski and Robert Quon were ideal research assistants. Their initiative, sense of responsibility, and unfailing good cheer greatly enhanced the quality of this book and the speed with which it has appeared. Lastly, we would like to express our thanks to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Its financial support, through its program of aid to scholarly conferences, was critically important to the conference and to the publication of this volume.
P.M. B.S.S.
Part 1
The View from Moscow
1
The Soviet View of the Utility of Force in the Third World
S. . MacFarlane
Introduction
Soviet military activism in the Third World since the early 1970s has become a cause of growing concern to Western policy-makers. Soviet and Cuban involvement in Third World conflicts was a significant factor in the slowing and reversal of the process of dtente. It affected not only the general atmosphere of East-West relations, but also the progress of arms control negotiations. Soviet activity in the Horn of Africa, for example, delayed the conclusion of the SALT II treaty. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan led the American government to withdraw the treaty from Senate ratification proceedings. In the current phase of tension between the superpowers, one of the more credible avenues to major war is that of escalation from confrontation in areas of the Third World where major interests of the U.S. and the USSR overlap.
