Description
Book SynopsisDiplomatic relations between the United States and Libya have rarely followed a smooth path. Washington has repeatedly tried and failed to mediate lasting solutions, to prevent recurrent crises, and to secure its own national interests in a region of increasing importance to the United States. Libya and the United States, Two Centuries of Strife provides a unique and up-to-date analysis of U.S.-Libyan relations, assessing within the framework of conventional historical narrative the interaction of the governments and peoples of Libya and the United States over the past two centuries.
Drawing on a wide range of new and unfamiliar material, Ronald Bruce St John, an expert with over thirty years of experience in international relations, charts the instances of ignorance, misunderstanding, treachery, and suffering on both sides that have shaped and limited commercial and diplomatic intercourse.
St John argues that Cold War strategies resulted in a paradoxical and ambigu
Trade Review
"Ronald Bruce St John provides a comprehensive, meticulously researched history of US-Libyan relations of the last 200 years. His book succeeds well in describing the sources of tension, conflicting interests, and misperceptions that have determined the course of interaction between the two countries." * Journal of North American Studies *
"Balanced, very informational. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *
"This is a wonderfully measured, insightful, comprehensive treatment of the subject that will, in my estimation, become a standard not only for the academic community but also for the policy and intelligence community." * Dirk Vandewalle, Dartmouth College *
Table of Contents
Preface
1 Dismal Record
2 Desert Kingdom
3 In the Beginning
4 Postwar Gridlock
5 Independence at a Price
6 One September Revolution
7 Reagan Agonistes
8 U.S.-Libyan Relations in the Post-Cold War Era
Select Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
