There is a dramatic history yet to be told. How a global superpower,
the United States, developed extensive strategic cooperation and a de
facto alliance with a small regional actor, Israel, part of a “special
relationship”. From today’s vantage point, many would be surprised to
learn that the US-Israeli relationship was quite limited in the early
decades, only taking on the close and institutionalized strategic
relationship we know today in the 1990s. Today, the relationship faces
unprecedented strains. A vast literature covers almost every dimension
of the US-Israeli relationship, with the major exception of the strategic
military and diplomatic cooperation between the two countries. No
book-length work has addressed how this dimension of the relationship
developed, the details of the different areas of strategic military and
diplomatic cooperation today, cases where the two sides have failed
each other, critical issues such as US diplomatic cover for Israel’s
purported nuclear capabilities, how Israel has become an important
strategic partner for the US and addressed critical questions regarding
the future of the strategic relationship.
