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United States foreign policy in the Middle East has its roots as early as the Barbary Wars in the first years of the U.S.'s existence, but became much more expansive after World War II. American policy during the Cold War tried to prevent Soviet Union influence by supporting anti-communist regimes and backing Israel against Soviet-sponsored Arab countries. The U.S. also came to replace the United Kingdom as the main security patron of the Persian Gulf states in the 1960s and 1970s, working to ensure Western access to Gulf oil. Since the 9/11 attacks of 2001, U.S. policy has included an emphasis on counter-terrorism. The U.S. has diplomatic relations with all countries in the Middle East except for Iran, whose 1979 revolution brought to power a staunchly anti-American regime. Recent priorities of the U.S. government in the Middle East have included resolving the Arab–Israeli conflict and limiting the spread of weapons of mass destruction among regional states. == Background == The United States' relationship with the Middle East prior to World War I was limited, although commercial ties existed even in the early 19th century. President Andrew Jackson established formal ties with the Sultan of Muscat and Oman in 1833. (The Sultan saw the U.S. as a potential balance to Britain's overwhelming regional influence.) Commercial relations opened between the U.S. and Persia in 1857, after Britain persuaded the Persian government not to ratify a similar agreement in 1851. In comparison to European powers such as Britain and France which had managed to colonize almost all of the Middle East region after defeating the Ottoman Empire in 1918, the United States was "popular and respected throughout the Middle East".〔Fawcett, L., (2005) ''The International Relations of the Middle East'', UK: Oxford University Press, p. 284〕 Indeed, "Americans were seen as good people, untainted by the selfishness and duplicity associated with the Europeans."〔Fawcett, L. (2005) ''The International Relations of the Middle East'' UK: Oxford University Press p 285〕 American missionaries had brought modern medicine and set up educational institutions all over the Middle East. Moreover, the United States had provided the Middle East with highly skilled petroleum engineers.〔Rugh, W. A. (2005) ''American Encounters with Arabs: The Soft Power of U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Middle East'' U.S.: Praeger Publishers Inc. ISBN 978-0-275-98817-3 pp 25–26〕 Thus, there were some connections made between the United States and the Middle East before the Second World War. Other examples of cooperations between the U.S. and the Middle East are the Red Line Agreement signed in 1928 and the Anglo-American Petroleum Agreement signed in 1944. Both of these agreements were legally binding and reflected an American interest in control of Middle Eastern energy resources, namely oil, and moreover reflected an American "security imperative to prevent the (re)emergence of a powerful regional rival".〔Le Billon, P., El Khatib, F. (March 2004) "From free oil to 'freedom oil': terrorism, war and U.S. Geopolitics in the Persian Gulf", ''Geopolitics'', Volume 9, Issue 1 p. 109〕 The Red Line Agreement had been "part of a network of agreements made in the 1920s to restrict supply of petroleum and ensure that the major (American ) companies … could control oil prices on world markets".〔Review (Winter 1982): "State Power and Industry Influence: American Foreign Oil Policy in the 1940s", ''International Organization'' 36, no. 1 p. 168〕 The Red Line agreement governed the development of Middle East oil for the next two decades. The Anglo-American Petroleum Agreement of 1944 was based on negotiations between the United States and Britain over the control of Middle Eastern oil. Below is shown what the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt had in mind for to a British Ambassador in 1944: Persian oil … is yours. We share the oil of Iraq and Kuwait. As for Saudi Arabian oil, it's ours.〔Yergin, D (1991) ''The Prize: The Epic quest for Oil, Money and Power'' New York: Simon and Schuster p 401〕 On August 8, 1944, the Anglo-American Petroleum Agreement was signed, dividing Middle Eastern oil between the United States and Britain. Consequently, political scholar Fred H. Lawson remarks, that by the mid-1944, U.S. officials had buttressed their country's position on the peninsula by concluding an Anglo-American Petroleum Agreement that protected "all valid concession contracts and lawfully acquired rights" belonging to the signatories and established a principle of "equal opportunity" in those areas where no concession had yet been assigned.〔Lawson, F. H. (Aug., 1989) "The Iranian Crisis of 1945–1946 and the Spiral Model of International Conflict" ''International Journal of Middle East Studies'', Vol. 21, No. 3 p. 310〕 Furthermore, political scholar Irvine Anderson summarises American interests in the Middle East in the late 19th century and the early 20th century noting that, "the most significant event of the period was the transition of the United States from the position of net exporter to one of net importer of petroleum."〔Anderson, Irvine.(1981) ''Aramco, The United States, and Saudi Arabia''. Princeton University Press. p. 36〕 By the end of the Second World War, the United States had come to consider the Middle East region as "the most strategically important area of the world."〔Chomsky, Noam (January/February 2005) "Imperial Presidency", ''Canadian Dimension'', Vol. 39, No. 1 p. 8〕 and "one of the greatest material prizes in world history".〔 For that reason, it was not until around the period of World War II that America became directly involved in the Middle East region. At this time the region was going through great social, economic and political changes and as a result, internally the Middle East was in turmoil. Politically, the Middle East was experiencing an upsurge in the popularity of nationalistic politics and an increase in the number of nationalistic political groups across the region, which was causing great trouble for the English and French colonial powers. History scholar Jack Watson explains that "Europeans could not hold these lands indefinitely in the face of Arab nationalism".〔Watson, J, B(1981) Success ''in Twentieth century World Affairs since 1919'' Norwich: John Murray (Publishers) Ltd p. 295〕 Watson then continues, stating that "by the end of 1946 Palestine was the last remaining mandate, but it posed a major problem".〔Watson, J. B. (1981), ''Success in Twentieth Century World Affairs since 1919'', Norwich: John Murray (Publishers) Ltd p. 295〕 In truth, this nationalistic political trend clashed with American interests in the Middle East, which were, as Middle East scholar Louise Fawcett argues, "about the Soviet Union, access to oil and the project for a Jewish state in Palestine".〔Fawcett, L. (2005), ''International Relations of the Middle East'' UK: Oxford University Press, p. 284〕 Hence, Arabist Ambassador Raymond Hare described the Second World War, as "the great divide" in United States' relation with the Middle East, because these three interests would later serve as a backdrop and reasoning for a great deal of American interventions in the Middle East and thus also come to be the cause of several future conflicts between the United States and the Middle East.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「United States foreign policy in the Middle East」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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