Suchergebnisse

Discussion begins with a look at Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy approach. Focus then turns to an examination of Russian-Iranian relations under Putin. Noted is Putin's drive for economic development & assertion of policy independence in the form of weapons sales & nuclear cooperation with Iran. Russia's relations with Iran assumed importance under Boris Yeltsin, 1991-1999. Attention is given to problems with Russian-Iranian relations early in Putin's presidency, 1999-2001, with the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US a key event. Difficulties persisted: Iran was not thrilled by Putin's acquiescence to US troops in Central Asia, while the Caspian Sea remained a sore point & the Iranian nuclear crisis began to heat up. The latter is detailed in terms of US, Russian, European Union diplomatic actions & the impact the crisis had on US-Russian relations. Reasons why Russia was willing to risk a negative US response by supplying nuclear equipment & technology to Iran are advanced, & Russia's ongoing dilemma with Iran was illustrated in its behavior at the IAEA meeting that resulted in a resolution chastising Iran for its nuclear activities. It is concluded that while Putin has been able to promote Russian interests thus far, several dangers exist vis-a-vis the geopolitics of its weapons sales & assuaging of suspicions that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. D. Edelman

Scholars of Middle Eastern studies in the last decade often were preoccupied with two major problems. First, the democratization that has spread over most of the globe seems to have missed the Middle East. Second, there appears to be a growing gap between international relations and comparative politics theory, on the one hand, and Middle East studies, on the other. In seeking to explain why, some point to the highly politicized scholarship that can still be found in Middle East studies. Others argue that the theorists simply have not tried hard enough to fit the special nature of the Middle East into their theoretical models, or that Middle Eastern scholars have not tried hard enough to deal with theory. Two of the three books under review, by Hansen and Heydemann, do a great deal to narrow the gap between theory and reality in the Middle East. The book by Niblock is an example of the kind of highly politicized scholarship that is still found too often in Middle Eastern studies.

In an outgrowth of his doctoral dissertation, Talal Nizameddin, now a lecturer at Haigazian
University in Beirut, discusses the evolution of Russian foreign policy toward the Middle East
under Boris Yeltsin from the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 until 1997. The
book, based in part on extensive interviews in Moscow, seeks to show how Russian policy
evolved from what the author describes as the "radical pro-West" view of Foreign
Minister Andrei Kozyrev in the early 1990s to the more nationalist view of Yevgeny Primakov in
the mid- to late 1990s. In general, Nizameddin succeeds in his task, although his failure to
evaluate critically some of the comments given to him by his interviewees in Moscow, such as
Vitaly Naumkin, and the clearly anti-United States and anti-Israel perspective with which the
book is written detract from the value of the study.