Offering a comprehensive, up-to-date examination of the complex web of wars and proxy wars, revolutions and counter-revolutions that are ripping the Middle East apart, this book puts these events in their historical context and leads readers through the labyrinth that is the new Middle East. This book seeks answers to pressing, contentious questions. Why are there so many hereditary heads of state in the Middle East when the Prophet Muhammad did not appoint a successor? Why do Western countries claim to want democracy in the Middle East, yet support dictators? Why did Israel become a democracy while the Arab states did not? Why are there so many wars in the Middle East? And, most importantly, what happened to the hope and optimism of the Arab Spring? M.E. McMillan offers fresh answers to these difficult questions. Firmly grounded in historical research and insightful analysis of current events, this book gives readers a new understandingof what's really going on in the Middle East.

Firmly grounded in historical research and insightful analysis of current events Ideal for anyone concerned with the Middle East and international affairs, including students, scholars, anyone with a professional interest in Arab affairs, and the general reader

Autorentext
M. E. McMillan is author of Fathers and Sons: The Rise and Fall of Political Dynasty in the Middle East and the acclaimed The Meaning of Mecca: The Politics of Pilgrimage in Early Islam. She has worked as a translator for the United Nations in New York and Geneva.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements
Notes on conventions
Introduction Lost in the Labyrinth: What's Really Going on in the Middle East?
PART I: THE TANGLED WEB: WHY THE GREAT POWERS OF EUROPE BECAME INVOLVED IN THE MIDDLE EAST

1. Sarajevo, Sunday, June 28, 1914
2. The British Empire and the Arab World: Ambition, Austerity and A Class Apart
3. The French Empire and the Arab World: From the Crusades to the Civilizing Mission
4. The Russian Empire and the Arab World: Religion, Rome and the New Rome
5. The German Empire and the Arab World: Family Feuds and Eastern Ambitions
6. The Ottoman Empire: How the Arab World Was Won and Lost
   PART II: TOO MANY STRAIGHT LINES ON THE MAP: WHERE, WHEN AND WHY IT STARTED TO GO WRONG
7. London, Tuesday, December 21, 1915
8. The Arab World Before the War: The Facts on the Ground
9. The Re-Making of the Middle East: Enter the Nation-State
10. From Sykes-Picot to the Treaty of Sèvres: Betrayals, Backstabbing and Broken Promises
11. The Poisoned Legacy and The War's Unanswered Questions
    PART III: ALL OR NOTHING: WHY ALL ROADS LEAD TO JERUSALEM
12. Where to Begin?
13. Jerusalem: The Temple Mount
14. Jerusalem: The Noble Sanctuary
    PART IV: KINGS, COLONELS AND COUPS: WHY THERE IS A DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT IN THE ARAB WORLD
15. Cairo, Wednesday, July 23, 1952
16. The Kings, the Colonels and the Political Time Warp: The Return of the Middle Ages
17. I am the State: Power, Politics and the Cult of Personality
18. The Problem of Absolute Power: From Stability to Stagnation
    PART V: THE SACRED VERSUS THE SECULAR: WHO SPEAKS FOR ISLAM?
19. Mecca, Tuesday, November 20, 1979
20. 1979: The View from Tehran
21. 1979: Holy War and Unholy Alliances
22. The Arab Spring and the Democratic Alternative
    Epilogue Untangling the Web: What Now?
    Select Bibliography
    Index