This book represents the first comprehensive overview of the US-Iraqi relationship since 1979 and the first attempt to place the 2003 American invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq in that wider historical context. Using a modified version of World Systems Theory, the book places American policy toward Iraq at the centre of a number of dynamics, including America's dominant role in managing the world capitalist system, the fundamental importance of Persian Gulf oil to that system, and long-term change in the American political system.It argues that American policy towards Iraq since 1979...

An examination of the policy of the US Administration of Jimmy Carter towards Vietnam between 1977 and 1980. The book focuses on the attempt of the Carter Administration to normalise relations with Vietnam and the reasons for the failure of that effort. Using a belief systems approach to explain the policy choices of key decision-makers the book presents a new explanation of the policy in question and of the decision to abandon the attempt to normalise relations at the end of 1978.

Steven Hurst traces the development of the US Iranian nuclear weapon crisis from the conception of Iran's nuclear programme in 1957 to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015. Hurst adopts a broader perspective on the Iranian nuclear programme and explains the continued failure of the USA to halt it.