US Political-Military Interventions in the Persian Gulf

The exit of Britain from the Middle East coinciding with the Vietnam war crisis pushed the US to mainly follow its “bi-pillar” doctrine through its allies in the region. The emergence of the Islamic revolution in Iran jeopardized regional balance. The fear of a growing communist influence and possible consequences along with the Iran-Iraq war led to the presence of this country in the region. This presence was further consolidated following Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait. Throughout the presidencies of Bush senior and Clinton, the US policy was a combination of idealism -new world order after the second Persian Gulf war- and realism – further control over Iraq and Iran. This line of policy pointed to the country’s will to establish a -fluid- balance and -relative- stability which in turn led to the establishment of a sort of “cold peace” in the region. Obama’s rather different approach in turn followed the Wilsonist tradition while incorporating an active policy oriented towards rehabilitating the damaged image of the US through the use of intelligent power -mixture of soft and hard power- and by restoring the United States leadership while taking advantage of the potential of international organizations and regional coalitions and keeping away from Bush Junior’s unilateral approach.