Challenges for America in the Middle East

Mansbach and Taylor approach policy toward the Middle East and the issues it faces the same way they would begin to understand policy toward any other region or set of issues. They argue that such an approach promotes viewing challenges in the region as normal problems of foreign policy rather than treating the Middle East as a special case. They present a framework that articulates the key influences on U.S. foreign-policy formulation and implementation regardless of issue area. Specific sources of foreign policy relevant to key challenges in the Middle East are discussed in the opening chapter of each of the book’s four parts: the Arab Spring; radical Islam; Israel and Palestine; and the Shia Crescent. Readers will see sources at work in successive chapters that explain the historical development of the challenge and present-day dynamics, and U.S. foreign-policy efforts. They examine how the key factors influencing the United States are the same ones that influence America’s policy toward other regions. The book begins by discussing how the foreign and domestic arenas have become intermingled in a globalized world and then looks at several sources of foreign policy. It describes the trends characterizing American foreign policy in the Middle East in the past and present, as well as future alternatives. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)