America's misadventures in the Middle East / Chas W. Freeman Jr. ; foreword by William B. Quandt.

Author
Freeman, Chas W., Jr., 1943- [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Charlottesville, Va. : Just World Books, ©2010.
Description
230 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm

Availability

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ReCAP - Remote StorageDS63.2.U5 F733 2010 Browse related items Request

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    Summary note
    America's Misadventures in the Middle East leads off with Freeman's detailed reflection on President George H.W. Bush's handling of Iraq-Kuwait crisis of 1990-91. He was U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia at the time and was uniquely placed to see and understand what Washington and key allies were doing. Freeman reflects on "the American way of war", and in particular on Washington's failure in recent decades to plan for a stable and satisfactory political end-state for wars it wages. The rest of the book focuses on Washington's continued pursuit of "the American way of war" in the Middle East of the 2000's. Freeman reflects on the failures at many levels that pulled President George W. Bush into the disastrous decision to invade Iraq. And he stresses the deleterious impact that Washington's failure to hold Israel accountable for the violent policies it pursued toward its neighbors throughout the 2000's has had on Americans' interests in the Middle East. He assesses the impact that America's policy failings in the Middle East have had on its ability to continue leading the world in the same way it did in the half-century following the end of World War II. "Why not try diplomacy?" is the title of one chapter. Freeman gives us four deeply informed chapters about Saudi Arabia, placing the Kingdom's often misunderstood situation in its own historical context and in the context of its relationship with Western and other world powers. As Prof. William B. Quandt notes in his Foreword to the book: there is much to learn about "old-style" diplomacy here and much to regret that Freeman's views seem so "radical" from the perspective of today's politicized discourse. Readers of this volume will learn a great deal and will appreciate the style and the content of these essays--Publisher's description.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references.
    Contents
    • Part I. From Desert Storm to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq
    • 1. From the eye of the storm: the Kuwait crisis as seen from the American embassy at Riyadh
    • 2. Objectives and end games in the Middle East
    • Part II. Into the ambush of Iraq
    • 3. Reflections on a war with Iraq
    • 4. American unilateralism at play in the land of two rivers
    • 5. Flip-flops, confusion, and the asphyxiation of political debate
    • 6. Occupations and their national security consequences
    • Part III. Policy consequences
    • 7. The GCC and the management of policy consequences
    • 8. American foreign policy and the Arab world
    • 9. American interests, policies, and results in the Middle East: energy, Israel, access, and the containment of Muslim rage
    • 10. West Asia and the next president: more of the same won't do
    • 11. U.S.-Arab relations: forks in the way forward
    • Part IV. In defense of diplomacy and intelligence
    • 12. Why not let them hate us, as long as they fear us?
    • 13. National security in the age of terrorism
    • 14. Empire without diplomacy
    • 15. Can American leadership be restored?
    • 16. Diplomacy in the age of terror
    • 17. Why not try diplomacy?
    • 18. America in the world: Magoo at the helm
    • 19. On intelligence
    • Part V. Perspectives on Saudi Arabia
    • 20. Saudi Arabia and the forces of globalization
    • 21. Saudi Arabia's foreign and domestic dilemmas
    • 22. The Arabs take a Chinese wife: Sino-Arab relations in the decade to come
    • 23. Saudi Arabia: the end of progress without change.
    ISBN
    • 9781935982180 ((pbk.))
    • 1935982184 ((pbk.))
    • 9781935982012 ((pbk.))
    • 193598201X ((pbk.))
    • 9781935982043 ((hbk.))
    • 1935982044 ((hbk.))
    LCCN
    2010934170
    OCLC
    663385555
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