one certain fact about the Middle East is that nothing happens very fast there?

Decades and centuries of conflict，turmoil，and distrust present enormous baro!ers

to resolving the difie-rences between nations and peoples of that historic region?‘』 he

Middle East，Sixth Edition，examines the political，economic，social，and religiou．s

problems that make this area the most volatile and dangerous in the world?

In the four years since the previous edition was published，war has dominated

Middle Eastern events．Lebanon has been ravaged by the fifth Arab?Israeli war

since 1948 as well as continual sectarian and factional conflict between groups seeking to

hold or gain power in that war—torn country．In the Persian Gulf，Iran and Iraq have

been locked for five years in a bloody and expensive war that has degenerated into a str—a—

tegic deadlock but could．if it flared anew，greatly disrupt the

flow of oil from the Gulf area．

The Deace process，so dramatically hailed at the end of the 1970s in the treaty

betwee‘n Egypt and Israel，sputtered and virtually stalled in the first half of the

1980s．Two key issure-s—the security and survival of Israel and the rights of Palestinia．ns

——remained unsolved．Political stability was further undermined by the growing

force of Islamic fundamentalism，based in Iran but with strong

support in many area countries．

And，lastly，an international glut of oil，produced by new sources outside the Midd．1e

East and by restrained demand in consuming nations，eroded and perhaps broke the

cartel stranglehold enjoyed in the 1970s by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting