The Handshake and After

For outright complexity and inconstancy, the politics and rivalries of the Middle East have few equals. They affect extra-regional and global developments. The diplomatic conse-quences of post-1945 decolonization in the Arab world, the deepening involvement of the superpowers in the area and in the succession of Arab-Israeli wars, the activist policies and tenacity of Khrushchev and Brezhnev, and the heightened western concern over Middle East oil have all contributed to the ‘discovery’ of the Middle East by specialists on Soviet affairs. The book under review should prove useful for introducing students to the twists-and-turns that are endemic to the subject. A documentary compi­lation of impressive scope and judicious selectivity, it treats the unfolding of Soviet policies in the Mid­dle East in a fashion that should also attract the attention of the specialist.