Part 1 : The view from Moscow --The Soviet view of the utility of force in the Third World / S.N. MacFarlane -- Soviet perspectives on Islam as a Third World political force / Carol R. Saivetz -- Moscow's perceptions of recent American involvement in the Middle East : implications for Soviet policy / Herbert L. Sawyer -- Moscow, Damascus, and the Lebanese crisis of 1982-1984 / Robert O. Freedman -- Soviet policy in the Middle East : the crucial change / Dina Rome Spechler -- Part 2 : The view from Washington -- Oil as a factor in U.S. policy toward the Middle East / David G. Haglund -- Faulty assumptions, failed policy : the Arabists and the PLO during the first Reagan administration / Martin Indyk -- American perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iranian-Iraqi war : the need for a new look / James R. Kurth -- Evaluating Reagan's Middle East policy : a first term balance sheet / John H. Sigler -- Part 3 : The impact of the great powers -- The great powers and conflict transformation in the Arab-Israeli dispute / Shmuel Sandler -- The dynamics of superpower involvement in the Middle East : retrospect and prospect / Blema S. Steinberg.