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The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East (Columbia/Hurst) | 
 enlarge | Author: Olivier Roy
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 332105
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 160
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.8
ISBN: 0231700326
Dewey Decimal Number: 956.054
EAN: 9780231700320
ASIN: 0231700326
Publication Date: March 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Missing Dust Jacket, Good Text.
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Product Description
In this book, Olivier Roy, Europe's leading scholar of political Islam, argues that the consequences of the "war on terror" have artificially conflated conflicts in the Middle East in such a way that they appear to be the expression of a widespread "Muslim anger" against the West. But in reality, there are no us and them. Instead, the West faces an array of "reverse alliances" that operate according to their own logic and dynamics. The West supports General Musharraf in Pakistan, yet his military intelligence services are in league with the Taliban; in Iraq, the United States shores up a government that is closely linked to its archenemy, Iran; Iraqi Kurds, allies of the Americans, give sanctuary to the PKK, an adversary of a fellow NATO member, Turkey; while the Saudis support the Iraqi Sunnis who are, in turn, fighting Coalition forces. As if these issues were not complicated enough, the ever-worsening Shia-Sunni divide now threatens to disrupt any future strategic planning the West might attempt in the Middle East. Roy unravels the complexity of these conflicts in order to better understand the political discontent that sustains them. He also emphasizes that the war on terror should not be regarded merely as a geopolitical blunder committed by a fringe group of neoconservatives. It is instead a problematic outgrowth of our deeply rooted Western perceptions of the Middle East, including the belief that Islam, rather than politics, is the overarching factor in these conflicts, thus explaining the West's support for either would-be secular democrats or (more or less) benign dictators. Roy's conclusion argues that the West has no alternative but to engage in a dialogue with the political forces that truly matter-namely the Islamo-nationalists of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A paleo-cons critique June 7, 2008
Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a needed critique of the neo-con manifesto for the Middle East, a manifesto that has, apparently failed. This book has its conservative credentials and thus offers a new conservative interpretation of what is happening and has happaned in the Middle East. The author correctly shows that the idea of extending democracy and human rights to the Middle East was originally a leftist one built on universalism and the Carter love of 'human rights'. This theory was opposed by Jeane Kirkpatrick in the famous essay 'dictatorships and double standards' which argued that it was wrong for America to force its allies to be democratic while facng the Soviet threat that undermined democracy from within and used democracy to set up dictatorship. In such a world the American support of local cultures, be they dictatorships, was fine.
The Neo-cons adopted the leftist ideology after the success at expelling the soviets from Afghanistan. At the same time the left came to beleive that culture dominates political reform and that dictatorship was endemic to the middle east. Neither point is entirely correct. In Latin America democracy did penetrate what was considered a culture of Catholic dictatorship. However it is not clear what will become of the Middle East. This book tries to examine the chaos of the Middle East and answer questions about the correct policy on Iran. In that it proves an interesting read and an important contribution.
Seth J. Frantzman
 Brief and to the Point June 11, 2008
Dennis J. Mcguckian (Los Angeles, CA United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a terrific book that summarizing the current political situation in the Middle East. It covers the effects of the war in Iraq on the key issues there, which need to addressed if we want to lessen the instability in that region.
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