Supplemental Materials

Shifting Sands: Balancing U.S. Interests in the Middle East

Shifting Sands: Balancing U.S. Interests in the Middle East draws students into the policy debate on one of the world's most volatile regions. Students examine the Arab-Israeli conflict, the role of oil in geopolitics, the politicization of Islam, the significance of the Iranian Revolution, and other historical issues that have shaped U.S. ties to the region.

Online Resources From the Choices Program

Graphic Organizers

Views from the Middle East—Using Google Earth

This Google Earth file is for use with a lesson published in Shifting Sands: Balancing U.S. Interests in the Middle East. The lesson is designed to engage students in the question of how geography affects politics. Students use the information they gather using Google Earth in order to prepare for a regional summit.

To open this file: Right click (or hold down the control key and click) on
the link above and download or save the file to the desktop. Before opening the downloaded file, make sure you have Google Earth open. If you do not have Google Earth, you can download it for free at earth.google.com.

The Political Geography of the Middle East
This Powerpoint is for use with a lesson plan in Shifting Sands: Balancing U.S. Interests in the Middle East.

Web Links

U.S. Department of State
Information on U.S. policy and the "Road-Map to Peace." The website also contains information about U.S. policy in Iraq.

U.S. Energy Information Administration
Statistics about U.S. energy consumption, imports, production, etc.

Questions and Answers about Terrorism
A website from the Council on Foreign Relations that provides clear information about terrorism.

Maps of the Middle East
The Perry-Castenada Map Collection at the University of Texas.

Books

Cleveland, William L. A History of the Modern Middle East, Second Edition (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000). 585 pages.

Gordon, Michael R. and Trainor, Bernard E. The Generals' War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf (Boston: Little, Brown, 1995). 551 pages.

Oren, Michael B. Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.) 446 pages.

Quandt, William B. Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict since 1967, Revised Edition. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001). 488 pages.

Yergin, Daniel. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991). 877 pages.

NOTE: This is a selected list of resources focused on the topic of the curriculum unit, Shifting Sands: Balancing U.S. Interests in the Middle East. Additional resources will be added to this site as they become available. See the two-page flyer on the unit for more details.