Review: Riding the Tiger
| Published date | 01 June 1994 |
| Date | 01 June 1994 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209404900214 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS
439
War
world
which
needs
the
leverage
and
logistical
support
that
the
United
States
alone
can
provide
yet
may
not
choose
to
embrace
the
American
system
of
values.
The
author's
view
of
the post-Cold
War
world
is
one
of
unilateral
Americanism
rather
than
a
multilateralism
which would
allow
for
regional
initiatives
and true international
co-
operation.
Cordesman
demonstrates
a
thorough
and
impressive
knowledge
of
strategic
and
military
issues
in
the
Middle
East.
However,
as
national
military
statistics
constitute the major
portion
of
his
book
-
statistics
which
the
author
acknowledges
are
'highly
approximate
and
not
revealed
truth'
-
this
volume
will
be
of
more
importance
to
the
spe-
cialist
than
to
the
general
reader.
Alex
Morrison
&
Suzanne
Plain/
Canadian
Institute
of
Strategic
Studies
RIDING THE
TIGER
The
Middle
East
challenge
after
the
Cold
War
Edited
by
Phebe
Marr
&
William
Lewis
Boulder
co:
Westview,
1993,
x,
253pp,
US$55.oo
cloth,
US$16.
9 5
paper
Despite
its
title,
this
book
is
limited
to
an
examination
of
post-Cold
War
American
interests
and
policies
in
the
Middle
East.
But
it
is
not
a
narrow
book.
The
authors
cover
oil,
the
prospects for
an
accommo-
dation
between
Arabs
and
Israelis,
the changing
balance
of
military
capabilities
and
technologies
in
the region,
the
challenge
of
Islamic
revivalism,
and
such
'new'
security
issues
as
burgeoning
populations
and
rivalry
over
water
resources.
Where
appropriate
to
particular
issues,
each
author
was
asked
to
examine
three
levels
of
analysis:
the
global
balance
of
power
in
the
wake
of
the
demise
of
the
Soviet
Union,
the
regional
balance
of
forces,
and
the
complex
array
of
social,
economic,
and
ideological
issues
that
are
creating
some
new
fault
lines
in
the
region
or,
in
some
cases,
exacerbating
old
ones.
Not
surprisingly,
for
political,
strategic,
and
cultural
reasons,
few
of
the
policy
challenges discussed
here
are
easy
to
handle.
For example,
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