试析美国海湾政策的沿革与发展

海湾地区因其丰富的石油资源和重要的战略地位成为美国全球战略中不可缺少的重要组成部分。从1971年至今,美国在海湾地区的经营可分为四个阶段:1971年至1978年,美国实施"两根支柱"政策,主要是依靠那些装备了美式武器并接受美国教官军事训练的地区代理人来维护自己在海湾地区的利益;1979年伊朗巴列维国王倒台后,美国采取"卡特主义"波斯湾战略,强调在海湾地区建立自己的军事存在;1991年海湾战争后,美国海湾战略中心转变为对付对抗国家,伊朗和伊拉克成为美国"双重遏制"政策的目标;1998年底,美国海湾战略转变为独遏伊拉克,2003年美国发动伊拉克战争,结束了伊拉克的萨达姆时代。

Evolution of United States' policy towards the Persian Gulf

Due to its large reserves of oil and important strategic geographical position, the Persian Gulf becomes an indispensable part of the United States' consideration in policy making. Since 1971, the United States had carried out four different policies towards the Gulf which could be identified by four major stages. The first stage was from 1971 to 1978 when Washington relied primarily on regional surrogates, armed with weapons supplied by the U.S. and instructed by U.S. military technicians. Since the collapse of the Pahlavi monarchy in Iran in 1979, the U.S. began to build up unilaterally a military power in the region. In 1990s, the major focus of U.S. strategic plans turned to confront backlash states. Iran and Iraq became the targets of the "dual containment". By the end of 1998, Iraq was the only target of American containment strategy, when the regime of Saddam in Iraq was overthrown in 2003 in the Iraq War.