This book represents the first comprehensive overview of the US-Iraqi relationship since 1979 and the first attempt to place the 2003 American invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq in a wider historical context. Using a modified version of World Systems Theory, the book places America's policy toward Iraq at the center of a number of dynamics, including America's dominant role in managing the world capitalist system, the fundamental importance of the Persian Gulf to that system, and long-term change in the American political system. Steven Hurst argues that since 1979, American policy toward Iraq has been largely shaped by the importance of Persian Gulf oil to the world economy and the consequent need to restore America's position as a regional hegemon and guarantor of the global oil supply, which had been destabilized by the Iranian revolution. It also emphasizes the role of American domestic politics and above all the "conservative ascendancy," which brought George W. Bush to the presidency, as a critical factor in explaining the 2003 invasion.