Review: Middle East and Asia: The Persian Gulf
| Author | R.M. Savory |
| Published date | 01 December 1974 |
| Date | 01 December 1974 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070207402900429 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS/MIDDLE
EAST
AND
ASIA
681
the
myth
of
absolute Arab
commitment
to
the
liberation
of
Palestine.
This
book
constitutes
a
genuine
and
original
contribution
to
our
knowledge
of
the
politics
of
Palestinian nationalism
and
can
be
read
with
profit
by
all
students
of
comparative
revolutions.
Ibrahim
Abu-Lughod/Northwestern
University
THE
PERSIAN GULF
Iran's
Role
Rouhollah
K.
Ramazani
Charlottesville:
University
Press
of
Virginia,
1972,
Xviii,
157PP,
$7.50
In
1971,
the
removal
of the
British
presence,
which
had
maintained
a
pax
Britannica
in
the
Persian
Gulf
for
i5o
years,
left
a
power
vacuum
in
the
area,
and
it
is
axiomatic
that
nature
abhors
a
vacuum.
The
Gulf
states
possess
two-thirds
of
the
non-communist
world's proven
oil
reserves
and
the
United
States
controls
two-thirds
of
these
reserves.
The
interest
of
the
United
States
in
preserving
the
status
quo
in
the
region
is
therefore
obvious.
When
the
Soviet
Union
began
large-scale
naval
activity
in
the
Indian
Ocean,
the
Pentagon
reacted
in
1972
by
sending
warships
to
the
area
with
increasing
frequency,
and
the
United
States
took
over
from
Britain
the
Bahrain
naval
base.
It
is
not
only
the
superpowers,
however,
that
are
interested
in
the
Persian
Gulf.
When the British announced
their
intention
to depart
in
1971,
Iran
and
the
various
Arab
states
bordering
on
the
Gulf
felt
themselves
to
be
in
an
exposed
position.
Six
of
the
small
Arab
Trucial
States,
together
with
Qatar
and
Bahrain,
hastened
to
form
the
Union
of
Arab
Emirates.
Iran,
Saudi
Arabia,
and
Kuwait,
the
states
most
interested
in preserving
the
status
quo,
took
measures
to enhance
the
security
of
the
Persian Gulf;
for
example,
this
predominant
common
interest
led
Iran
and
Saudi
Arabia
to
sink
their
long-standing
dif-
ferences
and
reach
agreement
regarding
the
continental
shelf
in
the
Gulf.
Of
the
Arab
states,
only
Iraq,
which
had
been consistently
hostile toward
Iran
since
the
overthrow
of
the
monarchy
in
Iraq
in
1958,
was
a
discordant
element.
As
the
title
of
the
book indicates,
Professor
Ramazani
seeks
to
To continue reading
Request your trial