At the junction of three great continents and oceanic trade routes that link the cities of the world, the Persian Gulf, like a magnet, has pulled powerful nations into its waters and adjacent lands for centuries. This study examines the contested history for control of the Gulf and its resources, concentrating on Portugal, Holland, Britain, and the United States, and concludes with a look at possible future involvement by India and China. The contributors' thorough analysis reveals several consistent broad interests, including the fact that the great powers entered the region mostly to further trade, to maintain order there, and in the case of the Europeans, to establish a military presence that would protect colonial possessions farther east. Such a historical perspective of the West's involvement provides readers with a new understanding of this vital region.

The Portuguese presence in the Persian Gulf: an overview / Rudi Matthee -- The Dutch in the Persian Gulf / Virginia Lunsford -- The Great Game and power projection / Robert Johnson -- The gamekeeper versus the mercenary spirit: the Pax Britannica in the Gulf / Saul Kelly -- Why didn't America replace the British in the Persian Gulf? / Jeffrey R. Macris -- Richard Nixon, Great Britain, and the Anglo-American strategy of turning the Persian Gulf into an allied lake / Tore T. Petersen -- A guiding hand or controlling grasp? Britain, intelligence, and the war in Oman, 1970-76 / Clive Jones -- In Brzezinski's forge: fashioning the Carter doctrine's military instrument / Frank L. Jones -- The ties that bind: the events of 1979 and the escalation of U.S.-Saudi security relations during the Carter and Reagan administrations / Jason H. Campbell -- India's "Monroe doctrine" and the Gulf / James R. Holmes and Toshi Yoshihara -- China's historic return to the Gulf / Ben Simpfendorfer.