The Foreign Policies Of Arab States

This book offers an analysis of trends in Arab foreign policies since 1984, including an early analysis of the effects of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent coalition victory over Iraq. The inclusion of Jordan and Sudan allowed for fuller understanding of the foreign policies of states.

Middle East politics have been proverbial for their changeability. The 1970s ushered in petro-politics, for instance, but OPEC's international status declined markedly in the following decade. Similarly, the Arab world's ostracism of Egypt in the 1970s following its separate peace with Israel was turned around in the 1980s; the late 1980s also brought PLO acceptance of the State of Israel. Interstate relations were not the only arena to experience significant alterations; state-society relations also underwent dramatic changes, such as the acceleration of privatization in erstwhile socialist regimes. Then the 1990s opened with a political earthquake: the Gulf Crisis. The second edition of this highly acclaimed text offers a penetrating analysis of trends in Arab foreign policies since the book was originally published in 1984, including an early analysis of the effects of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent coalition victory over Iraq. In addition, the authors have included new chapters on Jordan-at the heart of the Arab world-and on the Sudan-the region's link to sub-Saharan Africa. Their inclusion allows a fuller understanding of the foreign policies of states that occupy crucial geopolitical positions but wield little tangible power. Moreover, in many of its chapters the book raises the crucial question of how the foreign policies of these countries can cope with the prevalence of political change.

Autorentext

"Bahgat Korany is director of the Arab studies program and professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Montreal.
Ali E. Hillal Dessouki is professor of political science at Cairo University and director of the Center for Political Research."

Inhalt

Preface and Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- A Literature Survey and a Framework for Analysis -- The Global System and Arab Foreign Policies: The Primacy of Constraints -- The Arab System: Pressures, Constraints, and Opportunities -- From Revolution to Domestication: The Foreign Policy of Algeria -- The Primacy of Economics: The Foreign Policy of Egypt -- The Dialectics of Domestic Environment and Role Performance: The Foreign Policy of Iraq -- The Politics of Vulnerability and Survival: The Foreign Policy of Jordan -- Heroic Politics: The Foreign Policy of Libya -- The Survival of a Nonstate Actor: The Foreign Policy of the Palestine Liberation Organization -- Defending the Faith amid Change: The Foreign Policy of Saudi Arabia -- The Foreign Policy of a Fragmented Polity: The Case of Sudan -- Revisionist Dreams, Realist Strategies: The Foreign Policy of Syria -- Arab Foreign Policies in a Changing Environment