Since the Camp David agreements of September 1978, the Middle East has experienced a series of major military and political developments that have affected not just the nations of the region and the two superpowers, but the rest of the world as well. The fall of the Shah of Iran, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Iraqi invasion of Iran, the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon—to name only a few events—have had a major impact. In this volume, a group of internationally recognized scholars, many of whom are present and former U.S. government officials, analyze these Middle Eastern developments from the perspectives of the superpowers, the region in general, and the five major actors during this period (Egypt, Israel, the PLO, Syria, and Iran). Although the individual authors speak from differing perspectives and viewpoints in their analyses, the book as a whole presents a balanced examination of the key developments in the volatile Middle East since Camp David.
