Asia in the 1980s will be extremely important for the U.S. The factors which make it a locale of intensified U.S.-Soviet rivalry include the extension of Soviet naval power to the Western Pacific, the potential of a U.S.-China security cooperation on the theme of "antihegemony," the growing Soviet interests in Southwest Asia and the Persian Gulf area and instability in Indochina.

The Gulf Conflict provides the most authoritative and comprehensive account to date of Iraq's occupation of Kuwait, its expulsion by a coalition of Western and Arab forces seven months later, and the aftermath of the war. Blending compelling narrative history with objective analysis, Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh inquire into the fundamental issues underlying the dispute and probe the strategic calculations of all the participants.