United States involvement in Afghanistan Research Paper

fall in States involvement in Afghanistan - Research Paper good exampleIn their book, Myths, Illusions, and Peace Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East, authors Ross and Makovsky (2009) look a range of myths and illusions that underpin the challenges that the United States has faced in dealing with the Arab world. The two authors trace the challenges of the United States form _or_ system of government on the Middle East from the Cold War era to the current age. Illustrations argon make regarding on how faulty assumptions developed into wrong approaches regarding the interests, perspectives, and policy-making objectives of the Middle East. For instance, the United States wrongly interpreted the repartee of the Middle East to the rise of Communism. The US policy makers were under the impression that the Middle East would mechanically reject the Soviet ideologies because of their inconsistency with the faith of Islam.Understanding the complexities, successes, and challenges of the United States involvement in Afghanistan acquires clearer insights when analyzed unneurotic with the core arguments propounded by Ross and Makovsky (2009). The authors make general and specific claims and arguments ab expose the nature of the US foreign policy in the Middle East and its ramifications in the aspects of peace, balance of power, democratization, and religious extremism. The impact of the US foreign policy on the Middle East can have either positive or negative results depending on its capacity to interpret, predict, and relate with the challenges in the Middle East. Policies that have raceed to demonstrate preferential treatment towards the State of Israel as particularly cited as problematic (Duncan, 2004). According to the argument, personaal interests, nationalism interests, and Islam are essentially dissimilar. As such, they tend to manifest themselves in region in different forms in conformism with multiple factors. Cases have been pointed o ut where the pursuit of Islamic interests appears to contradict established interests. Hierarchies of interests vary and manifest themselves in multiple forms in accordance with the stakes of the regions governments, strategies of various groups, and cultural factors (Hudson, 1996). Rigid structures and frameworks that apply across time and billet cannot be developed to assess the nature of realities in the region. Therefore, the existing policies cannot apply in the interpretation of the political and social realities of the Middle East. Lack of comprehension of these forces has led to futile strategies in the formulation of peace plans in the region (Hudson, 1996). The traditional American policy for the Middle East, concord to the authors, anchored on the myth of Arab Unity. The United States handled the region as a homogenous entity that relied on common interests and goals. The authors single out the case of the poor handling of the regions peace proposals by power Egyptian President Anwar Sadat by the administration of former President Carter as a case in point where the United States failed to capitalize on the prospect of the moment. The mistake, according to the authors was the belief that Sadat could never act alone outside the bracket of the Arab worldview. Myths that control the Arab approaches on matters, according to the authors, lead the United States policy makers to make poor judgments of situations that often prove to be very costly. The authors turn over that such approaches generate a mismatch between the guiding ideology and the methods applied in the practical terms. Ideologies are equally explored in the manner in which they cloud the judgments on matters of regional balance and another(prenominal) issues that appertain to the relationship between the United States and the Middle East. Ross and Makovsky (2009) contend that relationships that are more productive are possible and the pursuit of peace achievable if the United States reworks its policies in the region in ways that equate with the fluid nature of Middle East politics, religion,