Synopses & Reviews
This book takes a refreshing look at the modern Middle East through the prisms of six cascading negative critical turning points. It identifies the seeds of a potential seventh generated by poor governance paradigms and exacerbated by geopolitical competition for the region's natural resources. The authors argue that this problem can only be effectively addressed through the development of endogenous good governance paradigms that are culturally appropriate, affordable and acceptable to the people of the Middle East, while meeting certain minimal criteria that ensure global moral and political cooperation. They conclude by proposing a set of recommendations designed to promote stability and security in the region and to enable its true potential as a vibrant, tolerant and innovative region to be realized.Now in paperback, this book includes a new postscript from the authors exploring the latest developments in the Middle East including the Arab Spring. It will appeal to a wide range of scholars in History, Political Science, International Relations and Middle Eastern studies.
Review
"At long last a book on the Middle East which is free from the usual Western stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims. Dr. Nayef Al-Rodhan is a distinguished neuroscientist and geostrategist with an intimate knowledge of the Middle East and genuine empathy for its people. The result is a thoughtful and thought-provoking book on an eventual century in Middle Eastern history." - Professor Avi Shlaim, FBA, St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, UK
Synopsis
This book takes a novel look at the modern Middle East through the prisms of six cascading negative critical turning points. It identifies the seeds of a potential seventh in the collective dignity deficits generated by poor governance paradigms and exacerbated by geopolitical competition for the region's natural resources.
About the Author
Nayef R.F. Al-Rodhanis Senior Associate Member of St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, UK. H is also a Senior Scholar in Geostrategy and Director of the Geopolitics of Globalization and Transnational Security Program at the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP), Switzerland. He is a philosopher, neuroscientist, and geostrategist. A prize-winning scholar, he has published seventeen books proposing many innovative concepts and theories in global politics and security.
Graeme P. Herd is Head of the International Security Program and Co-Director of the International Training Course in Security Policy (ITC) at the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP), Switzerland. His recent books include Great Powers and Global Stability in the 21st Century (edited) and The Ideological War on Terror: World Wide Strategies for Counter Terrorism (edited with Anne Aldis).
Lisa Watanabe is Research Officer for the Program on the Geopolitical Implications of Globalization and Transnational Security at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), Switzerland. She is the author of Securing Europe: European Security in an American Epoch.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The Historical Legacy - The Rise and Fall of the Golden Era
2. The First Critical Turning Point - 1915-22
3. The Second Critical Turning Point - 1948
4. The Third Critical Turning Point - 1967
5. The Fourth Critical Turning Point - 1979
6. The Fifth Critical Turning Point - 1987-91
7. The Sixth Critical Turning Point - 2001
8. Implications for a Potential Critical Seventh Turning Point - 2011-15
New Postscript