This chapter first appeared in the 2007 Mediterranean Yearbook, published by the Institut Europeu de la Mediterrania

US policies in the Middle East region faced acute challenges in 2006. The ongoing war and struggle to legitimize the new government in Iraq were the preoccupying concerns, and progress in that arena was modest. The year was also shaped by the war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which caught the United States off guard and had repercussions, both good and bad, for US relations with other key actors in the region. There was neither stability nor security for the United States and the states of the Middle East.