Volume XI – Number 1
Charles Burton Marshall
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to examine the United States’s interests in the Middle East. The Nixon administration has openly stated that the Middle East is a strategic region against the Soviet Union. The U.S. is primarily concerned with the preservation of Israel, its main regional ally. The Soviets wish to enforce Soviet doctrine in the region while boosting their regional naval forces to ensure a scenario similar to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis does not reoccur. Both powers seek to avoid war in the region. The U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is largely rationalist, failing to take into account the diversity and disorder of the region. With the U.S. acting as the main guarantor of Israeli existence, it is fundamentally at odds with Arab interests, and this rift is being exploited by the Soviets to alienate the Arab world from the U.S. With Israel having confidence in American support, their expansionist ventures have led to further Arab discontent. The U.S. is unlikely to make amends with the Arab world without sacrificing support for its critical ally- Israel
