Review: The Foreign Policies of Arab States
| Date | 01 June 1994 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209404900211 |
| Published date | 01 June 1994 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
THE
FOREIGN
POLICIES
OF
ARAB
STATES
The
challenge
of
change
Edited
by
Bahgat
Korany
&
Ali
E.
Hillal
Dessouki
Boulder
co:
Westview,
1991, xii,
449PP,
US$
5
9.
5
o
cloth,
US$2
3
.9
5
paper
This
new
edition
of
the
Korany
and
Dessouki
collection
on
Arab
for-
eign policies
adds
two
new
chapters
to
the
volume
originally
published
in
1984.
The
importance
of
the
volume,
then
as
now,
is
to
provide
a
conceptual
framework for
explaining
and
understanding
the
making
of
foreign
policy
in
Arab
states.
As
the
editors
suggest,
there
is
a
dearth
of
work
focusing
strictly
on
the
nature,
mechanics,
and
constraints
of
foreign
policy
making
by
Arab
states.
Because
the
systematic
study
of
foreign
policy
has
been
largely
directed at
the
analysis
of
major
powers,
the
weakness
in
the
conceptual
treatment
of
the
foreign
policies
of
developing
countries
has
meant
the persistence
of
the
misconceived
view
that
their
policies
are
greatly
subject
to
the
interests
and
behaviour
of
a
narrow
political
leadership
operating
largely
in
a
non-representa-
tive
domestic
environment.
It
is
this
view
that
Korany
and
Dessouki
set
out
to
correct
in
the
first
edition
of
their
book
and
which they
continue
to
pursue
in
this
expanded
volume.
There
is
no
arguing
with
the
view
that
at
the
end
of
the
Cold
War
the
Arab
world
finds itself
the
object
of
increased
interest
among
the
developed
countries. The
reasons
are
obvious
and
yet
complex.
More-
over,
the
Arab
world
constitutes
the central
core
of
a
wider
Islamic
world
and,
since
the
Islamic
revolution
in
Iran
that
ended
the
rule
of
the
shah
in
1979,
that
Arab-Islamic
world
has
been
made
to
appear
in
the
West
as
the
source
of
a
new
'threat'
to Western
interests
world-wide.
The
first
edition
of
this
volume came
out during
the
Iran-Iraq
War
and
the
revised
version,
ironically,
coincides
with
the
end
of
the
Cold
War
and
the
Gulf
War
triggered
by
the
Iraqi
invasion
of
Kuwait.
While
this
volume does
not
deal
directly
with
the
difficulties
posed
by
the
Gulf
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