The history of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East by Michael Oren portrays American involvement in the region but without the usual canard that the American interest in the region is simply about oil. An historian and senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, Dr. Oren authored the recent bestseller Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present to this end. With its fledging navy, the United States began as a nation dependent on trading. Two centuries before the oil boom, 20% of this trade was with the Middle East.
The pirates of the Muslim Barbary corsairs attacked the U.S. and Europe. Thomas Jefferson did not wish to employ bribery, as had been the case, and he violated his own anti-state tendencies to argue that the United States should build a naval force to protect its maritime interest. The John Adams argument advocated the continued policy of payoffs to building a navy. Finally, Jefferson's view prevailed and in fact one of the primary arguments for the U.S. Constitution was that a stronger federal government was needed to raise funds for just such a naval force.
In contrast to an emphasis on oil acquisition, Oren demonstrates that the earliest American presence in the Middle East has revolved around three themes: faith, fantasy, and power. He makes no bones about the American pursuit of power in the region, military, diplomatic, or economic as the case may be, in the pursuit of tangible American interests in the Middle East.
In addition, faith informed American thought on the Middle East as evangelists sought to impart their own faith to an unbelieving world. America was to be the "city on a hill" or that divine example of freedom, morality, and human rights all on display for the world.
Finally, the theme of fantasy informed the illusory and mystical images of the Middle East suggested to the minds of many Americans, who saw the Arabic tradition as a land of unrivaled romance and exoticism.
The overwhelming predominance of Americans who visited the Middle East in the 19th century traveled either to enjoy the exotic lands to be discovered there, or, they were there to convert Muslims, or at least educate them, to the American gospel.
In the twentieth century, U.S. policy toward the Middle East was dictated by the intersection of faith and power as exemplified by Theodore Roosevelt who insisted that the United States should declare war on the Ottoman Empire. He argued that the U.S. was obligated to spread its faith and its democracy to the backward and recalcitrant Turks. We should realize the failure of this policy once President Woodrow Wilson's refused to commit the U.S. During WW I then, more than a million troops from Britain and France were stationed in the Middle East but not one American soldier. The Frence and the British dictated post-War policy without the Americans.
Throughout the subsequent administrations, to that of Harry Truman in 1948, the U.S. faithfully endorsed Jewish restoration to the Holy Land while supporting the spread of democracy in the region.
In the final concluding section, Oren switches gears and describes the complex and nuanced policy of the U.S. in the Middle East.
The major takeway to consider is how the U.S. has had a nearly parallel history to that of the U.S. itself. This nation and the Middle East have been intertwined for nearly the same amount of time that the nation has existed. Partly based on a desire to promote faith in America's institutions, and exert power in the region, American presidents have sought to export America's faith in itself and its institutions, while being captivated and seduced by the exotic Middle East.
Today, many Middle Easterners are unaware of this history, not realizing that the United States has long enjoyed multifaceted and mutually beneficial relations in the region. Although its policies, perceptions, and motives have sometimes been a bit muddled, the United States has done vastly more good than harm in the Middle East over the course of more than two centuries, in unexpected ways that often foreshadowed some of this century's most complex challenges.
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