The Future of The Middle East: Faith, Force, and Finance by Monte Palmer
I'm leaving to the UAE this weekend and wanted to get a better understanding of the politics and policies of middle eastern countries.
Before reading The Future of The Middle East: Faith, Force, and Finance by Monte Palmer, my knowledge on the topic was a hodgepodge of headlines propagated by news outlets like CNN and Fox News. Through the three key lenses faith, force, and finances, Palmer analyses how the middle east has changed from WW1 to modern day. The book is very well organized by chronology through WW1 (1914-1940); WW2 (1940-1967); Religious extremism during 1967-1980, 1975-1990; an Era of peace, stability, and illusion in 1990-2000; the Era of Global Terror and counter-terror (2000-2010); the Era of islamic rule (2010-2013); 2017; and post 2017. In each period, it goes in decent depth to countries like Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Palestine as well as their relationships with US policy and any special relationships they may have with the US.
There are so many forces at play, between nationalism/tribalism, factions of Islam, authoritarian rulers protecting their own power, and changing tides of Western support and invasion. Terrorism was a natural byproduct of the use of force upon populations that were destitute (an abject lack of food, water, utilities, and community) from US-backed authoritarian rulers. Faith became the natural turning point and the US perpetuated itself as the natural enemy of Islam through its aggressive and paradoxical foreign policies as well as its special relationship with Israel. It will take a deep level of empathy for the US to navigate its special relationships with countries that oppose each other and have different views of the future of the middle east. In any case, the US is currently positioned to always be the loser through a combination of it's own incompetent leadership (Bush era) and its lack of a unified front to stand for.
As someone with very little to no context on the historical forces at play behind the middle east of the 21st century, this book was an incredible primer.