The middle east and the cold war Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The middle east and the cold war - Essay Example The Middle East, owing to its strategic geographical location and abundant energy resources, particularly oil reserves, played a crucial role even during World War II. Despite the imperialistic presence of Britain in the Middle East at the time of the Cold War, the United States also wanted to establish its superpower status in the Middle East (Khalidi). Following the decline of British and French political forces in the Middle East in the years after the World War II and beginning from the 1950s, the two superpowers namely the Soviet Union and America sought to establish their authority in the region. The United States through the Truman Doctrine protested the Soviet and communist influence in the Middle Eastern regions of Greece and Turkey and volunteered to help restrict Soviet actions in the regions. This was soon followed by other doctrines such as the Eisenhower Doctrine that focused on the conflicts between the Arab’s and Israeli’s and the Nixon Doctrine which re sulted in the Persian Gulf policy that ensured regional stability in the Gulf following threats from the Soviet Union. During the Carter Administration, the President wanted to end the Arab-Israeli conflict and sought the help of the Soviet Union to play a constructive role in the process. The cooperation with the Soviet Union was one of the highpoints of the Carter administration which also included the joint issue of a statement that stressed the need for a permanent settlement between the Arab’s and Israeli’s. It also called upon a reconvention of the Geneva conference (Reich and Gotowicki). Following the undertaking of the Sadat initiative by the American government to resolve the Arab-Israel conflict, the Carter administration turned its focus on the Gulf region which by then has witnessed several events such as the Iranian revolution, issue of American hostages and the invasion of the Afghanistan by the Soviet. These events raised concerns about the true