Although he believes that US interventionism in the Middle East was justified in the context of the Cold War, Hadar (Research Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute) argues that the collapse of the Soviet Union should have led to a "constructive disengagement" with the region and that the failure to do so has led inexorably to a "destructive disengagement" in which the United States has to use its military power and economic resources to deal with growing challenges to its hegemony from regional and global actors. In order to address this intractable problem, he suggests, he US should adopt policies advocated by such foreign policy figures a Zbigniew Brzezinsky and Brent Scowcroft to act forcefully resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to adopt less ambitious plans for political change in the Middle East, and to move toward a clear "division of labor" between the US and Europe in securing Western interests in the region. Since these measures will only help reduce short- and mid-term costs, he goes beyond them in arguing that Europe should be encouraged to take the place of the US as the "balancer of last resort" in the region, in order to avoid the type of Euro-American conflict presaged by the invasion of Iraq. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Read Less