Steven Hurst is Reader in Politics at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Steven Hurst has written a first-rate and very readable book. This is an authoritative and comprehensive explanation of the most important and controversial foreign policy adventure that the United States has embarked upon in the post-Cold War era. Hurst manages to confidently tell this complex and multifaceted story without resorting to polemics, moralising or simplistic generalisations. -- Dr Toby Dodge, Senior Consulting Fellow for the Middle East, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London Steven Hurst has written a first-rate and very readable book. This is an authoritative and comprehensive explanation of the most important and controversial foreign policy adventure that the United States has embarked upon in the post-Cold War era. Hurst manages to confidently tell this complex and multifaceted story without resorting to polemics, moralising or simplistic generalisations.

• Introduction; 1. Towards a New Relationship, 1979-1984; 2. From a Tilt to an Embrace, 1984-1989; 3. The Persian Gulf War, 1990-1991; 4. Dual Containment, 1992-2000; 5. A Second War for Hegemony, 2001-3; 6. Things Fall Apart, 2003-8; Conclusions: American Hegemony after the Iraq War; Bibliography.

Steven Hurst is Reader in Politics at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Steven Hurst has written a first-rate and very readable book. This is an authoritative and comprehensive explanation of the most important and controversial foreign policy adventure that the United States has embarked upon in the post-Cold War era. Hurst manages to confidently tell this complex and multifaceted story without resorting to polemics, moralising or simplistic generalisations. -- Dr Toby Dodge, Senior Consulting Fellow for the Middle East, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London Steven Hurst has written a first-rate and very readable book. This is an authoritative and comprehensive explanation of the most important and controversial foreign policy adventure that the United States has embarked upon in the post-Cold War era. Hurst manages to confidently tell this complex and multifaceted story without resorting to polemics, moralising or simplistic generalisations.

• Introduction; 1. Towards a New Relationship, 1979-1984; 2. From a Tilt to an Embrace, 1984-1989; 3. The Persian Gulf War, 1990-1991; 4. Dual Containment, 1992-2000; 5. A Second War for Hegemony, 2001-3; 6. Things Fall Apart, 2003-8; Conclusions: American Hegemony after the Iraq War; Bibliography.

Steven Hurst is Reader in Politics at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Steven Hurst has written a first-rate and very readable book. This is an authoritative and comprehensive explanation of the most important and controversial foreign policy adventure that the United States has embarked upon in the post-Cold War era. Hurst manages to confidently tell this complex and multifaceted story without resorting to polemics, moralising or simplistic generalisations. -- Dr Toby Dodge, Senior Consulting Fellow for the Middle East, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London Steven Hurst has written a first-rate and very readable book. This is an authoritative and comprehensive explanation of the most important and controversial foreign policy adventure that the United States has embarked upon in the post-Cold War era. Hurst manages to confidently tell this complex and multifaceted story without resorting to polemics, moralising or simplistic generalisations.

• Introduction; 1. Towards a New Relationship, 1979-1984; 2. From a Tilt to an Embrace, 1984-1989; 3. The Persian Gulf War, 1990-1991; 4. Dual Containment, 1992-2000; 5. A Second War for Hegemony, 2001-3; 6. Things Fall Apart, 2003-8; Conclusions: American Hegemony after the Iraq War; Bibliography.