Synopses & Reviews
Published to widespread media acclaim, Fawaz Gerges's work takes on the past, present, and future of the United States relationship with the Middle East. Gerges, one of the world's top Middle East scholars, examines the US-Middle East relationship Obama has inherited, analyzes the administration's responses to the challenges it has faced, and highlights what must change in order to improve US outcomes in the region. Evaluating the presidents engagement with the Arab Spring, his decision to order the death of Osama bin Laden, his intervention in Libya, and his relations with Iran, Gerges reaches a sobering conclusion: the United States is near the end of its moment in the Middle East. The cynically realist policy it has employed since World War II—and that the Obama administration has continued—is at the root of current bitterness and mistrust, and it is time to remake American foreign policy.
Review
"Gerges lays out the problems from multiple viewpoints and establishes the points of greatest need. How Obama addresses the challenge to Americas hegemony and whether he can stand up to political pressure from home will determine if this is truly the end of Americas moment in the Middle East. An exceptional book that thoroughly scrutinizes the struggles of all the nations of the Middle East and doesnt hesitate to distribute blame where its warranted."
—Kirkus (starred review)
"Amid [a] political culture of misplaced punditry, Fawaz Gerges is a welcome contrast,
and a voice of dissent. [He] elevates his book above two crowded fields: well-promoted but quickly out-dated policy books that promise bold world predictions from recent events, and ... books
that offer a mix of first-draft-of-history reporting and rough-draft political and historical
insight. Instead, Gerges...aligns himself with a biting critique of Washington, and of
the latent biases and tropes in much American reporting and policy-making on the Middle East."
-Los Angeles Review of Books
“This is a highly readable book, recommended for anyone who regularly follows the news in this region.”
—Library Journal
“Gerges deftly condenses many years into an easily digestible history rife with spot-on analysis…a strong and informative primer on American involvement in the Middle East.”
—Publishers Weekly
"Fawaz Gerges has written a provocative book that should make Americans think carefully about their country's role in the rapidly changing Middle East."
—William B. Quandt, professor of Politics, University of Virginia
"A penetrating study by one of the most influential writers on a most troubled region, one that shows every sign of becoming more troubled still in the future. In Gerges' view, the American ‘moment in the Middle East is fast coming to an end with potential consequences we can only yet dimly perceive. A must-read.”
—Michael Cox, professor and co-director, IDEAS, The London School of Economics and Political Science
"Fawaz Gerges scrutinizes President Obamas Middle Eastern policy with the clinical accuracy and piercing insight of one of the leading authorities on the region. Distinguishing sweeping rhetoric from policy, he is compelling in demonstrating that while Obama has inherited reduced influence abroad and a rapidly changing landscape, American official attitudes remain largely constant."
—James Piscatori, Durham University
"With characteristic and skillful gusto, Fawaz Gerges goes straight to the heart of the matter. Arguing that a supposedly transformational president has been anything but when it comes to US foreign policy in the Middle East, he lays out an ambitious strategy for navigating a region in tectonic flux. Essential reading for policymakers, pundits, and all students of the contemporary Middle East."
—Peter Mandaville, author of Global Political Islam and director of the Ali Vural Ak Center for Islamic Studies, George Mason University
"As Fawaz Gerges describes in lucid and deeply informed prose, Obama has lost a historic opportunity to redefine the American political culture—and he has in fact managed to drag it even deeper into a habitual politics of brute force and vulgar violence. Fawaz Gerges' timely and tempered book is too late for Obama but vastly informative and deeply encouraging for the rest of us still committed to a better and more responsible world."
—Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University, New York
"Fawaz Gerges is one of the foremost scholars of Middle East politics. Here he delivers a cogent analysis of Barack Obamas foreign policy toward the Middle East. Gergess verdict is harsh: Obama has neither prioritized the region nor taken the necessary risks required to alter a flawed foreign policy. This is simply the best analysis of the Obama administrations foreign policy toward the region."
—Samer Shehata, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University
Review
"Sensible recommendations are woven through every chapter of the book for the next US administration" - YaleGlobal Online
"For students of the region, journalists, policy-makers, or others interested in developing a nuanced understanding of US foreign policy towards the Middle East today, at a time when the sun seems to be setting on the US' 'unipolar moment', Fawaz Gerges' Obama and the Middle East could not have come at a better time." - LSE Review of Books
"In a thorough and clear manner, Gerges takes the reader through each of the major challenges the Obama administration has had to face in the Middle East, highlighting where the man of 'hope' and 'change' failed, and where the president has simply been a prisoner of history." - Middle East Policy Council
About the Author
Fawaz A. Gerges is a professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he is chair of the Middle East Centre. He was a senior ABC television news analyst from 2000 until 2007 and has been a guest on Charlie Rose, Oprah, ABC Nightline, and other prominent shows. He has contributed pieces to The New York Times, The Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Middle East Journal, Al Mustaqbal al-Arabi, and many others. He lives in London.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Overcoming the Bitter Inheritance * Americas Encounter with the Middle East * In a Single Morning: The Bush Doctrine * The Obama Doctrine * Pivotal Peace * Obama and the War on Terror * Allies and Foes: The Pivotal States—Egypt, Turkey, and Iran