M. E. AHRARI is Professor of Middle East and West Asian Affairs at the United States Air War College. He is a specialist in American policy process, with interests in foreign and defense policies, superpower relations in the Middle East, and the political economy of oil. His books include The Gulf and International Security (1989), Ethnic Groups and U.S. Foreign Policy (Greenwood Press, 1987), OPEC--The Failing Giant (1986), and The Dynamics of Oil Diplomacy: Conflict and Consensus (1980). He has also published extensively in professional journals in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Asia.JAMES H. NOYES has been a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution since 1985. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Near Eastern, African, and South Asian Affairs in the Nixon and Ford administrations. He has written The Clouded Lens: Persian Gulf Security and U.S. Policy( 1979, 1981) and his most recent publications have appeared in American-Arab Affairs and in M. E. Ahrari's (editor), The Gulf and International Security (1989). Since 1984, he has served as editor of the Middle East section of Yearbook on International Communist Affairs.

• Acknowledgments Introduction: Background and Overview by M. E. Ahrari and James H. Noyes The Outside Powers and the Persian Gulf Policies of the United States and the CIS: A Post-Cold War Perspective by James H. Noyes The Persian Gulf: A European Challenge to U.S. Hegemony? by Leon T. Hadar Dominant Indigenous Players Iran in the Post-Cold War Persian Gulf Order by M. E. Ahrari Iraq and the Post-Cold War Order by Ahmad Hashim The Saudi Role in the New Middle East Order by Joseph Twinam Strategic Issues and Prospects Gulf Oil: Geo-Economic and Geo-Strategic Realities in the Post-Cold War and Post-Gulf War Era by David Winterford and Robert E. Looney Arms Race in the Persian Gulf: The Post-Cold War Dynamics by M. E. Ahrari The Gulf Cooperation Council: Prospects for Collective Security by Kenneth Katzman Conclusion: Regional Outlook by M. E. Ahrari and James H. Noyes Appendix A: The Proliferation of Chemical Weapons in the Middle East and Its Implications Appendix B: The Proliferation of Ballistic Missiles in Selected Middle Eastern Countries Selected Bibliography