Ever since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Western analysts have been involved in an intensive effort to decipher the motivations  and longer-term implications of this action. What is the basis of Soviet policy towards the  Middle East? What are Moscow’s ambitions not only in the Northern Tier states of Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, but also in the Arab world and the Morn of Africa? What are the political, economic and military dimensions of Soviet policy, and to what extent does the Kremlin use its Cuban and East European allies as proxies for the pursuit of its own objectives in the area? These and many other important and timely questions are addressed in this major study from the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.

The book arose out of the meetings of the Institute’s study group on Soviet policy in the Middle East, which included specialists from government, universities, industry, banking and journalism. Discussion was based on papers which dealt with the political, economic, military and strategic aspects of Soviet policy, and it is these papers which were thoroughly revised and extended to form the contributions to this volume.

The contributors are established figures in both Soviet and Middle Eastern studies, and a major distinguishing feature of the volume is that each author is concerned to address an audience broader than that of his or her own specialist field – it be economics, politics or strategy. At the same time, the essays are aimed to provide not only reflections and analysis but also detailed information about the background and current state of Soviet policy.

The book will be of value, therefore, to advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and academics both in international relations and in the contemporary politics and economics of the Soviet Union and the Middle East. More broadly, it will be a source of information and insight for officials, politicians, journalists and other with a serious interest in this vital subject.

The Editors

Adeed Dawisha is Assistant Director of Studies at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He has previously taught international relations and Middle Eastern politics at the Universities of Lancaster, Keele, Sussex and British Columbia, and was formerly Senior Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategies Studies. He is the author of Egypt in the Arab World:  The Elements of Foreign Policy (Macmillan, 1976), Saudi Arabia’s Search for Security (International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1979), and Syria and the Lebanese Crisis (Macmillan, 1980).

Karen Dawisha is a lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of Southampton. She has served as the Specialist Adviser on Soviet Policy to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and is the recipient of a Rockefeller International Relations Fellowship for the years 1982-4, during which she will be a Fellow of the Centre for International Studies at the London School of Economics. She is the author of Soviet Foreign Policy Towards Egypt (Macmillan, 1979), and the co-editor (with Philip Hanson) of Soviet-East European Dilemmas (Heinemann for the Royal Institute of International Affairs).

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