In August 1999,Mr David Mack,American expert on the Middle East affairs,deputy director of the Institute of the Middle East Studies in Washington,paid his first visit in China and gave a splendid lecture at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies,CASS,on August 9-10.The US foreign
policy is interwoven with the struggle between the two ideological trends of realism and idealism,and it is often a mixture of contradictions driven by different factors.The powerful national interests are the drive behind the US Gulf policy with strategic considerations occupying the dominant position;in decision making on the Arab-Israeli
peace process,the pressure exerted by the US internal politics and interest groups often plays the major role.The US has pursued two completely diverse policies toward Iran and Iraq and the wording of ‘dual containment’is misleading with regard to the US policy.The US objective for containing Iran is to change its foreign policy but not to change its government system,whereas the US policy toward Iraq has gone far beyond the scope of containment,aiming at the emergence of a new government in Iraq.The US traditional policy on the Middle East peace process is the advocation for a peace to be realised
step by step,and the
role it plays is to make promises and assurance of security for all sides participating in the peace talks.
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