ABC-CLIO, 2010. - 2269 pages.
Since the end of World War II the United States has had a troubled relationship with the Middle East. The superpower competition of the Cold War, the establishment of the State of Israel, the rise of militant Islam, the aggressiveness of authoritarian regimes, the dependency on Middle East oil, and a host of other factors have caused the United States to become involved in numerous regional confrontations, containments, sanctions, interventions, and wars over that period. The protection of our vital interests in the region has required a military presence and commitment that have steadily grown over that time. As former colonial powers, such as the United Kingdom, withdrew from the inteational policing of the region, the United States assumed that role, and that role has grown in size, complexity, and controversy.
The creation in 1980 of the U.S. Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF) by President Jimmy Carter acknowledged the vital national interests that we believed we had to protect and preserve from perceived Soviet threats during the Cold War. President Ronald Reagan elevated the RDJTF in 1983 to become the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), a full-fledged unified command. Many strategists thought that the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 would mark the end of the need for Central Command and that it would be eliminated or at least absorbed as a lesser command element under one of the other regional commands. The instability that came after the Cold War, however, did not see the diminishment of the threats to our interests or to the role of CENTCOM, which has actually expanded. That unified command has seen
more conflict since its creation in the mid-1980s than any other of its sister regional commands during that same period.
The Middle East is the heart of an Islamic culture that stretches from North Africa to the Philippines and from Russia to Central Africa. That culture includes well over 1 billion Muslims. Globalization has generated migrations that have expanded the locations where Muslims have settled to include North America and Europe. Holy places such as Mecca, Medina, Karbala, and Jerusalem remain the focal points of their religious belief system. This region is also the heart of the two other Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Christianity. This confluence of religious geographic and historic focal sites has resulted in long-standing tensions and conflict between
East and West that have been heightened by the greater intermingling of Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the Middle East and throughout the world. This built-in source of historic cultural
conflict has been exacerbated by more mode developments that have evolved over time.
Today, the importance of the Middle East is clear to most of us beyond religious implications, namely for political, security, and economic reasons. It begins with geography. The Middle East is the hinge plate of three continents. Since the establishment of the Silk Road and the East-West sea and land trade routes over the past millennium, this region has been vital to global trade and world economies. The discovery of energy resources there in the last century
made the region even more strategically important. President Franklin Roosevelt foresaw this as he arranged the historic meeting in 1945 with Saudi king Abdul Aziz aboard the U.S. Navy heavy cruiser Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake in Egypt’s Suez Canal. That meeting launched a cooperative energy and security relationship that lasts to this day, despite many strains along the way. The oil and natural gas reserves in this region remain unmatched anywhere else in the world. For these geographic and energy resource reasons, any threat that might destabilize or deny access to the Middle East has been deemed unacceptable to the United States and other world powers.
Since the end of World War II the United States has had a troubled relationship with the Middle East. The superpower competition of the Cold War, the establishment of the State of Israel, the rise of militant Islam, the aggressiveness of authoritarian regimes, the dependency on Middle East oil, and a host of other factors have caused the United States to become involved in numerous regional confrontations, containments, sanctions, interventions, and wars over that period. The protection of our vital interests in the region has required a military presence and commitment that have steadily grown over that time. As former colonial powers, such as the United Kingdom, withdrew from the inteational policing of the region, the United States assumed that role, and that role has grown in size, complexity, and controversy.
The creation in 1980 of the U.S. Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF) by President Jimmy Carter acknowledged the vital national interests that we believed we had to protect and preserve from perceived Soviet threats during the Cold War. President Ronald Reagan elevated the RDJTF in 1983 to become the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), a full-fledged unified command. Many strategists thought that the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 would mark the end of the need for Central Command and that it would be eliminated or at least absorbed as a lesser command element under one of the other regional commands. The instability that came after the Cold War, however, did not see the diminishment of the threats to our interests or to the role of CENTCOM, which has actually expanded. That unified command has seen
more conflict since its creation in the mid-1980s than any other of its sister regional commands during that same period.
The Middle East is the heart of an Islamic culture that stretches from North Africa to the Philippines and from Russia to Central Africa. That culture includes well over 1 billion Muslims. Globalization has generated migrations that have expanded the locations where Muslims have settled to include North America and Europe. Holy places such as Mecca, Medina, Karbala, and Jerusalem remain the focal points of their religious belief system. This region is also the heart of the two other Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Christianity. This confluence of religious geographic and historic focal sites has resulted in long-standing tensions and conflict between
East and West that have been heightened by the greater intermingling of Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the Middle East and throughout the world. This built-in source of historic cultural
conflict has been exacerbated by more mode developments that have evolved over time.
Today, the importance of the Middle East is clear to most of us beyond religious implications, namely for political, security, and economic reasons. It begins with geography. The Middle East is the hinge plate of three continents. Since the establishment of the Silk Road and the East-West sea and land trade routes over the past millennium, this region has been vital to global trade and world economies. The discovery of energy resources there in the last century
made the region even more strategically important. President Franklin Roosevelt foresaw this as he arranged the historic meeting in 1945 with Saudi king Abdul Aziz aboard the U.S. Navy heavy cruiser Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake in Egypt’s Suez Canal. That meeting launched a cooperative energy and security relationship that lasts to this day, despite many strains along the way. The oil and natural gas reserves in this region remain unmatched anywhere else in the world. For these geographic and energy resource reasons, any threat that might destabilize or deny access to the Middle East has been deemed unacceptable to the United States and other world powers.