1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910808806703321

Autore

Yaqub Salim

Titolo

Imperfect strangers : Americans, Arabs, and U.S.-Middle East relations in the 1970s / / Salim Yaqub

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca, New York : , : Cornell University, , 2016

©2016

ISBN

1-5017-0635-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (464 pages)

Collana

United States in the World

Disciplina

327.7305609/047

Soggetti

Arab-Israeli conflict - 1973-1993

United States Foreign relations Middle East

Middle East Foreign relations United States

United States Foreign relations 1974-1977

United States Foreign relations 1977-1981

United States Foreign relations 1969-1974

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. The Politics of Stalemate -- 2. A Stirring at the Margins -- 3. From Munich to Boulder -- 4. Rumors of War-and War -- 5. Scuttle Diplomacy -- 6. Future Shock -- 7. Fallen Cedar -- 8. Camp David Retreat -- 9. Abdul Enterprises -- 10. The Center Cannot Hold -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

In Imperfect Strangers, Salim Yaqub argues that the 1970s were a pivotal decade for U.S.-Arab relations, whether at the upper levels of diplomacy, in street-level interactions, or in the realm of the imagination. In those years, Americans and Arabs came to know each other as never before. With Western Europe's imperial legacy fading in the Middle East, American commerce and investment spread throughout the Arab world. The United States strengthened its strategic ties to some Arab states, even as it drew closer to Israel. Maneuvering Moscow to the sidelines, Washington placed itself at the center of Arab-Israeli diplomacy. Meanwhile, the rise of international terrorism, the Arab oil embargo and related increases in the price of oil, and



expanding immigration from the Middle East forced Americans to pay closer attention to the Arab world.Yaqub combines insights from diplomatic, political, cultural, and immigration history to chronicle the activities of a wide array of American and Arab actors-political leaders, diplomats, warriors, activists, scholars, businesspeople, novelists, and others. He shows that growing interdependence raised hopes for a broad political accommodation between the two societies. Yet a series of disruptions in the second half of the decade thwarted such prospects. Arabs recoiled from a U.S.-brokered peace process that fortified Israel's occupation of Arab land. Americans grew increasingly resentful of Arab oil pressures, attitudes dovetailing with broader anti-Muslim sentiments aroused by the Iranian hostage crisis. At the same time, elements of the U.S. intelligentsia became more respectful of Arab perspectives as a newly assertive Arab American community emerged into political life. These patterns left a contradictory legacy of estrangement and accommodation that continued in later decades and remains with us today.