The Anglo-American Gulf: Britain's Departure and America's Arrival in the Persian Gulf is a historical narrative that examines how London and Washington influenced the Persian Gulf region from World War II to Operation Desert Storm in 1991. This study examines how the British for over a century used a modest complement of diplomats and military forces to maintain order in the turbulent region. The study also investigates why the British departed, why the Americans initially refused to replace them, and how the chaos of the two ensuing decades forced Washington to assume the security duties that the British had abdicated. Finally, The Anglo-American Gulf looks at how the relationship between the two Atlantic powers—not always warm and cordial—evolved during this time. This work chiefly uses the historian's craft of document analysis, and draws heavily upon diplomatic and military papers from British and American archives.

The author concludes that the British arrived in the Persian Gulf in the nineteenth century to protect the seaborne approaches to India. Using naval power backed-up by the threat of the Indian Army, for over a century London fulfilled three enduring missions: maintaining order; protecting the free flow of commerce, which later included petroleum; and keeping out other Great Powers. After World War II the British failed to reconcile their worldwide defense commitments with their reduced financial position. They faced fierce anti-Western political movements. In 1968, consulting neither their Arab nor American allies, the British Labour government announced a withdrawal within three years from the Gulf. Mired in Vietnam, and exhibiting an American inclination to see independent nations rule themselves, Washington's leaders refused to assume London's security guarantees. Over the ensuing twenty years the Persian Gulf region devolved into chaos. The economic and political costs associated with the 1973 oil crisis, the fall of the Shah, the Iran-Iraq War, and finally the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait proved too high for Washington to remain aloof. By 1991 American leaders had assumed the same Persian Gulf missions the British had previously fulfilled: maintaining order, protecting the free flow of commerce, and keeping-out other Great Powers.