Carter Doctrine Research Articles

The Carter Doctrine, the Reagan Corollary, and prospects for United States Policy in Southwest Asia

The Carter Doctrine, the Reagan Corollary, and prospects for United States Policy in Southwest Asia

Arms and Oil: U.S. Military Strategy and the Persian Gulf

In 1979, after a decade of enormous increases in the price of oil, U.S. influence in the oil-rich Persian Gulf region declined sharply. Early in the year the Iranian revolution replaced the shah, the principal pro-American leader in the region, with rulers hostile to the United States and to its remaining friends around the Gulf. In December Soviet troops moved into Afghanistan, bringing the Soviets closer to the Gulf and the Indian Ocean. In the United States these events spurred the announcement of the Carter Doctrine and the creation of a new military command to handle Gulf crises. Yet the United States established no new fighting forces, and U.S. friends around the Gulf proved less willing than the shah of Iran to host a U.S. military presence. Thus debate has continued about whether and how the United States can secure important interests in the Gulf region.In this book Thomas L. McNaugher offers a military strategy that integrates U.S. forces into the security framework that already exists in the region. He suggests that the United States should encourage Jordan, Pakistan, Great Britain, and others to continue their historical involvement in Gulf security, especially in such areas as internal security where U.S. forces are no better equipped than theirs and where U.S. participation may undermine the legitimacy of local rulers. In turn, the United States should focus on protecting the oil-rich states of the Arabian peninsula from external attack and on deterring further Soviet encroachment in the region. These missions demand an increase in the agility, rather than the size, of U.S. forces. But the more important requirement, McNaugher argues, is for skillfully blending U.S. military strategy into a diplomacy that exploits, rather than needlessly upsets, regional security mechanisms.

From the Truman Doctrine to the Carter Doctrine: Lessons and Dilemmas of the Cold War

From the Truman Doctrine to the Carter Doctrine: Lessons and Dilemmas of the Cold War

Soviet Vulnerabilities in Iran and the RDF Deterrent

I t is difficult to imagine a region at once so vital economically and so volatile politically as the Persian Gulf today. To its economic importance, the Arab oil embargo of 1973 was, for many, the first rude awakening. Since then, a stormy sequence of events has underlined its political instability. The Iranian revolution, the fall of the Shah, and the bitter ordeal of the hostages were, for many Americans, a shocking demonstration of that fact; the seizure of the Great Mosque at Mecca and the Iraq-Iran War, part of its grim and continuing confirmation. Concurrent with these stark realizations, the West saw Soviet foreign policy enter a particularly adventurist phase, one in which regional instabilities-in Angola, in Ethiopia, and in South Yemen-were made targets of military opportunity. The possibility that a crumbling order in the Gulf would present the Soviets with even more attractive opportunities was lost on a very few. And when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, the West's worst fears suddenly seemed ominously at hand. Jolted by the alarming convergence of events, former President Carter threw down the gauntlet, warning in his 1980 State of the Union Address that an attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region-will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.' Today, few would deny the claim of former CIA Director, Admiral Stansfield Turner that . . the most demanding need for military force in the region would be to oppose a direct thrust by the Soviets into Iran. 2 Indeed, this contingency, under the Carter Doctrine has served as a principal basis for planning of the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDF).

The Carter Doctrine and US Bases in the Middle East

The Carter Doctrine and US Bases in the Middle East

What the Carter Doctrine Means to Me

What the Carter Doctrine Means to Me

The Carter Doctrine on Human Rights: A Normative Approach

The Carter Doctrine on Human Rights: A Normative Approach

The Carter Doctrine on Human Rights: A Normative Approach

The Carter Doctrine on Human Rights: A Normative Approach