These three books are in the nature of background studies. None of them is an infallible guide, and all fall short of the coverage of Anthony Cordesman's weighty volume The Gulf and the Search for Strategic Stability (noted in Foreign Affairs, Fall 1984). Lenore Martin stresses the complexity of the region's problems and relates U.S. strategy to the existing "dynamic balance" and the prospects for destabilization. The Hoover Institution study links Gulf security to events in Afghanistan, the Iraq-Iran war, the prospects for the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the ability of the United States to adjust strategy to political realities. Amin, an international lawyer, ranges hither and yon but is at his best in covering the legal aspects of Gulf security.