The Middle East, problem area in world politics

An international relations analysis regarding the problems of the Middle East, with respect to the nascent foreign policy goals of the United States and Western Europe. The author places the Middle East in its contemporary world setting, explaining how historical spheres of influence and the balance of national power affected the region's development. He identifies the main "problems" of the Middle East of the time: the Suez Canal, Israel and the partition of Palestine, oil, Turkey's control of the straits and the Cold War implications, Arab nationalism, and Britain's problems retaining influence over its former colony the Sudan.