Publication

This paper summarizes US foreign policies in the Middle East during 2006 and evaluates developments in bilateral relations. According to the authors, the ongoing war and struggle to legitimize the government in Iraq were the preoccupying concerns for the US, and progress in that arena was modest. Further, the authors state that 2006 was also shaped by the war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hizbollah, which caught the US off guard and had repercussions, both good and bad, for US relations with other key actors in the region. The paper concludes that in 2006, there was neither stability nor security for the US and the states of the Middle East.