Includes bibliographical references and index.

The Portuguese presence in the Persian Gulf: an overview / Rudi Matthee -- The Dutch in the Persian Gulf / Virginia Lunsford -- The great game and power projection / Robert Johnson -- The gamekeeper versus the mercenary spirit: the pax Britannica in the Gulf / Saul Kelly -- Why didn't America replace the British in the Persian Gulf? / Jeffrey R. Macris -- Richard Nixon, Great Britain, and the Anglo-American strategy of turning the Persian Gulf into an allied lake / Tore T. Petersen -- A guiding hand or controlling grasp? Britain, intelligence, and the war in Oman, 1970-76 / Clive Jones -- In Brzezinski's forge: fashioning the Carter doctrine's military instrument / Frank L. Jones -- The ties that bind: the events of 1979 and the escalation of U.S.-Saudi security relations during the Carter and Reagan administrations / Jason H. Campbell -- India's "Monroe doctrine" and the Gulf / James R. Holmes and Toshi Yoshihara -- China's historic return to the Gulf / Ben Simpfendorfer.