Crisis and Crossfire traces the origins of the contemporary challenges facing the United States in the Middle East by analyzing the broad contours of U.S. policy in the region since the government's first involvement there in the 1940s. Peter L. Hahn evaluates U.S. policy in the context of such global phenomena as the Cold War and the multipolar international order that emerged in the early 2000s. He explains how the United States has tried, with varying degrees of success, to curtail, modify, and channel Arab and Iranian nationalist movements to serve U.S. interests.

Crisis and Crossfire examines the U.S. approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict through eight decades, exploring the interstate wars of the 1940s-1980s, the quests to make peace in the 1970s-2010s, and the enduring strife between Israel and Palestine. Hahn details how the United States has assumed growing responsibility for regional stability and security in the Middle East since World War II, culminating in involvement in the Gulf War to liberate Kuwait and the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. This second edition provides an objective explanation of the Israeli-Palestinian Gaza War; the U.S. stand-off with Iran; the proxy wars in Lebanon, Yemen, Libya, and Syria; the threat of terrorism; and related topics.