Syria and Iran : middle powers in a penetrated regional system

It has been the dominant view that both Syria in the 1980's and Iran today have acted as rogue states in the Middle East threatening to upset the stability of the region. In this innovative new study, Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Raymond Hinnebusch show that these two countries have in fact acted in a rational fashion pursuing the aim of containing Western influence. This book demonstrates how Syrian foreign policy resembles the ""rational actor"" model and Iran's rational factions in government guide its diplomacy. Syria and Iran's foreign policies are shown to be conventional ones, of ""real...