In The Arab Middle East and the United States, Burton I. Kaufman presents a comprehensive survey of U.S. involvement with the Arab nations from World War II to the present. Kaufman focuses both on the critical role of the United States in the history of Arab-Israeli relations and on U.S. interest in the vast oil resources of the Arab nations. He explores these intertwined, but often conflicting, developments with an emphasis on the internal divisions within the Arab world.

In fact, Kaufman's examination of the historical differences, rivalries, competing ambitions, and confrontations that characterize inter-Arab relations challenges the very concept of an "Arab world," offering new insights into the complexities of U.S.-Middle East diplomacy.

Kaufman also details the impact of the cold war on U.S.-Arab relations. In his view, Washington's abiding concern with communist expansion after 1945 pervaded and perverted the U.S. approach to the Arab Middle East. Combined with the rise of Arab nationalism, Kaufman argues, the hardening of the cold war led to an American myopia regarding the Middle East that a more regional perspective might have avoided.

Kaufman presents his conclusions in chronological chapters that analyze the respective policies and actions toward the Middle East of American presidents from Truman to Clinton. He traces the history of U.S. foreign policy in the post-World War II era, the rise of Arab nationalism, the Arab-Israeli conflicts, the Camp David Accords, and the Persian Gulf War and its aftermath.

Kaufman offers a balanced view of the Arab-Israeli conflicts, at once clarifying the role of the United States in moving Israel and the Arab nations toward accommodation and revealing the limits of the U.S. influence in the Arab Middle East.