Interest Group And U.s. Middle East Policy

Applying and using the new theories of modern political science, history and international study for reference, this doctorial dissertation explores the role and the influence of the U.S. interest groups in the shaping and practicing of the U.S. foreign policies. In order to achieve each own purpose, the pro-Israel and the pro-Arab interest groups go out of their ways to put influence upon the U.S. Middle East policies by means of lobbying and counter-lobbying the policymaking. The great influence of pro-Israel lobbying, the effort of pro-Arab counter-lobbying and the rise of pro-Iranian lobbying in the United States as well, all these suggest the growing sophistication of conflicts in the U.S. politics. This special political force of interest groups, dissociating from government, is becoming more and more active in foreign policymaking and will challenge the traditional patterns of governmental diplomacy.This dissertation puts emphasis on the method of combining macro research and micro analysis, takes account of holistic approach and case analysis, and makes a comprehensive use of both Chinese and English materials in order to draw a scientific and reasonable conclusion. This paper is divided into five chapters apart from its introduction of a brief review of the academic research and its conclusion. The first chapter gives a review of the theories of the U.S. interest-group politics; explains the concepts, characters, types and its development of interest groups; and it also discusses the lobbying ways, roles, positions and influences on politics. The second sums up the evolution of the U.S. Middle East foreign policy and discusses the U.S. strategic interests in Middle East after World War II. The third gives an illustration of what American Jews are and the formation and organization of pro-Israel interest group; how the inside and outside pro-Israel interest groups influence the U.S. politics and play role in the shaping and practicing of the U.S. Middle East policies. The fourth tries to give a careful study on the history, status quo and the political participation of American-Arabs and the pro-Arab interest group. It also analyzes the problem and prospect of their political participation, gives a case analysis of the rise of pro-Iranian lobbying in the United States and thus finds their influence on policymaking quite limited. The fifth sets forth the two interest groups'strategies in influencing the U.S. Middle East policies, gives a comparative study on pro-Israel lobbying and pro-Arabic lobbying from perspectives of their background, public attitude and social influence and probes into how the United States makes its own profitable policies under the pressure of the pro-Israel and the pro-Arab interest groups with the case analysis of Iraq War in 2003.The last which is the conclusion gives a comparative study of the pro-Israel and the pro-Arab interest groups by means of the interaction of the U.S. politics and interest groups so that it comes to a conclusion that the influence of the interest groups upon the U.S. Middle East policies has a double character which is democratic and non-democratic; no matter whether it is the influence of pro-Israel interest group upon the U.S. Middle East policies or that of pro-Arab's, it has its own limitation.