The contributors to this book offer an explanation of Soviet and U.S. policy in the Middle East by exploring how the superpowers define their goals in the region, the factors that both stimulate and constrain the United States and the Soviet Union in the implementation of their objectives, and how their mutual perceptions influence behavior.

Westview Special Studies -- Preface -- The View from Moscow -- The Soviet View of the Utility of Force in the Third World -- Soviet Perspectives on Islam as a Third World Political Force -- Moscow's Perceptions of Recent American Involvement in the Middle East: Implications for Soviet Policy -- Moscow, Damascus, and the Lebanese Crisis of 1982–1984 -- Soviet Policy in the Middle East: The Crucial Change -- The View from Washington -- Oil as a Factor in U.S. Policy Toward the Middle East -- Faulty Assumptions, Failed Policy: The Arabists and the PLO During the First Reagan Administration -- American Perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Iranian-Iraqi War: The Need for a New Look -- Evaluating Reagan's Middle East Policy: A First Term Balance Sheet -- The Impact of the Great Powers -- The Great Powers and Conflict Transformation in the Arab-Israeli Dispute -- The Dynamics of Superpower Involvement in the Middle East: Retrospect and Prospect.