In this section, the authors tackle the late 1970s and the 1980s. They focus on American engagement in the Middle East and Africa during the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations. They also examine Jimmy Carter’s presidency through the prism of human rights. The Soviet entry into Afghanistan also occurred during his tenure. Finally, Ambrose and Brinkley analyze the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration and its focus on the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” (320). The multifaceted policy included boycotting the 1980 Moscow Olympics, cooperation on nuclear-arms reduction questions, as well as the relationship between a new type of Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Reagan. The US was also involved in other parts of the world at this time, and Reagan underwent his own equivalent of Watergate—the mid-1980s Iran-Contras Affair.

First, the authors overview the diversity of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: the Arab countries as well as non-Arab players like Turkey, Israel, and Iran. They suggest that Israel’s 1948 founding changed the balance of power in the region: “From 1948 on, most Arabs have refused to agree that the state of Israel has a right to exist, while the Israelis have insisted (especially since 1967) that the Palestinian refugees have no right to a national state of their own” (257).