Encounter with Reality

This book traces the internal causes for the early policy incoherence in the Reagan administration. It suggests the lessons learned by Washington from its "trial and error" approach to Middle East realities, and describes the course adopted toward the end of the first Reagan administration.

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The education of any US administration to the complexities of the ever-changing Middle East is an on-going experience. It ends only with the termination of that administration's tenure. In order for any earlier analysis of this evolutionary process to take place, the observer must take advantage of the most viable boundary in time. None seems less artificial than the deadline imposed by presidential elections. Moreover, the juxtaposition of the need to demonstrate accomplishments and suggest a course for four more years, with the potential of personnel reshuffles, suggests a possible turning point worthy of note. Hence the present study traces and attempts to analyze the Reagan administration's Middle East policy during its first four-year term of office.