Former CIA analyst Pollack (The Threatening Storm
) has devised an eloquent argument in favor of long-term American involvement in Middle East politics, arguing that American security and prosperity is contingent upon an orderly and democratic Middle East. A self-professed “liberal internationalist,” the author advocates sustained engagement rather than a foreign policy that has been characterized by “reluctance” and is consistently “episodic, tried on the cheap, and shortsighted.” Pollack keeps his sweeping survey lucid and readable and is refreshingly frank with the reader (“let's not kid ourselves: America's first and most important interest in the Middle East is the region's oil exports”). This book provides a thorough—if disheartening—diagnosis of the region's ailments—the burgeoning unemployment, poverty and population growth—and analyzes how repressive governments, a hidebound education system and a self-serving bureaucracy have destroyed the region's potential for foreign investment. Pollack's “grand strategy”—a decades-long commitment similar to the Marshall Plan to transform despotisms into democracies that promote economic expansion—should stimulate animated and necessary debate and a recasting of America's role in the Middle East. (July 22)
