The Tail Wags the Dog: International Politics and the Middle East

Popular consensus about conflict in the Middle East since the end of WWI puts much of the blame on interference by the West, especially the U.S. and the U.K. Middle East Quarterly editor Karsh vehemently disagrees, particularly in light of the Arab Spring (which he sees as having disappointing results) and the rise of ISIS. In this illuminating new history, he implicates the nations of the Middle East themselves, claiming they proved perfectly capable of blocking and manipulating seemingly more powerful countries during the Cold War and into the present. As two examples of this, he offers the toppling of the Shah of Iran in 1979, which blindsided the Carter administration; and the Soviet Union’s failure to prevent its allies Egypt and Syria from attacking Israel in October 1973. Moreover, during Western interventions into Iraq in the early 2000s and in Libya more recently, superior military might could not prevent mission creep, “greater savagery, higher death toll, and pervasive anarchy.” The tendency of Middle Eastern nations to get the better of the West, Karsh argues, has reached its zenith with the muddled and delusional foreign policy of the Obama administration. This contrarian take on modern geopolitics will be enthralling and eye-opening for foreign policy devotees. (Aug.)