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Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World
 
 
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Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World [Hardcover]

Vali Nasr (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

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Book Description

1416589686 978-1416589686 September 15, 2009 First Edition

Vali Nasr’s The Shia Revival turned the debate about the Iraq War on its head, unveiling how the Shia-Sunni rift fueled the Iraqi insurgency, and shooting onto the bestseller lists. Now Fateful Crescent will utterly rewrite the wisdom about the Islamic threat and the "clash of civilizations."

With Iran fast becoming a hegemonic powerhouse, embroiling the U.S. in what’s been described as a new Cold War, Vali Nasr reveals there is also a powerful counterforce in the Islamic world to that of the Iranian regime, so far unseen in the West. A vast tidal force is swelling up of upwardly mobile entrepreneurs, consumers, and investors who can tip the scales of power away from extremist belligerence. With a deft combination of historical narrative and contemporary on-the-ground reporting, Nasr demystifies these devout yet development-minded Muslims of the "critical middle"—the stealth force behind the extraordinary growth of aggressively capitalist Dubai—showing that they are people the West can and must do business with. By building strong ties with them, Nasr demonstrates, the tide of extremism can be turned. Fateful Crescent will spark lively debate and play a vital role in bringing about a sea change in thinking about the conflict with Islam.


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nasr (The Shia Revival) offers a fresh look at the future of religious extremism in the Middle East, suggesting that the great battle... for the soul of the region will be fought not over religion, but over business and capitalism. He posits that a rising middle class—seen most dramatically in Dubai, but a force across the whole Muslim world—is far more interested in economic success than in fervent religiosity, even as many bring a distinctly Muslim approach to the business they do. He points out that while the Reformation created the modern world, it wasn't that era's intolerant faith that made the transformation but rather trade and commerce, adding that values gain currency when they serve the economic and social interests of people. His in-depth analysis of the failures of various governments to provide for their people, as well as special focus on what is working in Turkey, and what is crippling Pakistan, helps drive his thesis home. Nasr's analysis can't help being somewhat hobbled by the fact that it depends heavily on the shifting sands of history-in-the-making, but his approach is sensible, well-argued and deserves close attention. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Vali Nasr masterfully articulates his argument through comprehensive research and vivid reporting. A must read." -- Senator John F. Kerry

"Vali Nasr's new paradigm about the rise of a new Muslim middle class will be embraced by a broad spectrum of experts: because it is a startling truth hiding in plain sight that Nasr brilliantly reveals and elaborates." -- Robert D. Kaplan, author of Balkan Ghosts and Imperial Grunts

"With his unique credentials and bold insights, Vali Nasr has written a landmark work at a pivotal time. It's a rich and exciting read." -- Robin Wright, author of Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East

"In this fascinating and timely book, Vali Nasr argues lucidly that free trade, not sanctions, is the key to a democratic awakening in the Muslim world. Forces of Fortune seems bound to be influential." -- Jon Lee Anderson, author of The Fall of Baghdad

"Take American chips away from the endlessly hypocritical and fruitless diplomatic games and rhetoric, our weakest hand, and put the chips on our strength -- helping Middle Eastern and Muslim countries with economic growth. That's the way to ultimately defeat the terrorists, build the middle classes, loosen ties to Arab autocrats, and develop democracies. That's Vali Nasr's brilliant message. It's the only way to rescue U.S. foreign policy from disasters." -- Leslie H. Gelb, former New York Times columnist and senior government official, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations

“Nasr has written a rewarding and impressive book. He is a lively guide to a maze of issues that rarely get discussed, and he uses the fruits of his wide travels in the Middle East with great skill … full of knowing insights and subtle personal portraits. Judging by this book, it is no mystery that Nasr has risen to such prominence in U.S. government circles as a preeminent explainer of the complex phenomena that define the modern Middle East.”

Foreign Affairs

“Vali Nasr’s important new book helps us understand the positive power of commerce in the Muslim world. He shows how growing economies and a new business class will be more important than extremist ideologies in determining how the Middle East interacts with the world. This is a wonderful combination of historical analysis and insightful reporting.”

—Walter Isaacson, CEO of The Aspen Institute and author of Kissinger: A Biography

“In recent years, much of the discussion about the Muslim world has focused on the role of Islam in politics, especially the rise of extremist groups. In this informative book, Middle East expert Nasr challenges our commonly held assumptions about the dynamics of the contemporary Middle East. Relying on examples from countries ranging from Iran to Turkey and Pakistan, he demonstrates that that is a commercial revolution in the Muslim world fueled by the emergence of dynamic and upwardly mobile middle-class entrepreneurs and reformers…It is this “critical mass,” he says, that will define the contours of Middle Eastern politics and the broader Muslim world and not the marginal extremists that have dominated news coverage of the region. This book should be read by all concerned citizens and policymakers in the West.”

Library Journal

“Nasr offers a fresh look at the future of religious extremism in the Middle East. He posits that a rising middle class is far more interested in economic success than in fervent religiosity. Nasr’s analysis … is well-argued and deserves close attention.”

—Publishers Weekly

“[A] humane and clear-eyed narrative…”

Harvard Business Review


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Free Press; First Edition edition (September 15, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1416589686
  • ISBN-13: 978-1416589686
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #215,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Vali Nasr is Senior Advisor to Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and Professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University. Previously he served as an Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a specialist on Middle East and South Asia politics and political Islam. He is the author of Forces of Fortune: The Rise of a New Muslim Middle Class and What it Means for Our World (2009): The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future (2006); Democracy in Iran (2006); and The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jama`at-i Islami of Pakistan (1994). and the author of numerous articles in academic journals and encyclopedias. His works have been translated into several languages.

Nasr has briefed the White House and the Congress on Middle East and South Asia issues. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, The New Republic, La Repubblica, Suddeutsche Zeitung, and was profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. His interviews and expert commentary have also been used in newspapers and new programs around the world, including Al-Jazeera, Der Spiegel, CNN, BBC, and 60 Minutes. He has appeared as a guest on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, The Charlie Rose Show, Meet the Press, Larry King Live, The Colbert Report, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

He was named a 2006 Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Corporation. He has also been the recipient of grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Nasr was born in 1960 in Tehran. He received his early education in Iran and England, and got his BA from Tufts University in international relations. He earned his MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in international economics and Middle East studies in 1984 and his PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology in 1991.

 

Customer Reviews

25 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Points out the need to reframe relations with the Muslim world, September 18, 2009
This review is from: Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World (Hardcover)
As one of the foremost scholars and thinkers on Muslim society Vali Nasr has demonstrated his keen insight into that world. His 2007 book The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future sought to reframe the debate over the Iraq war by exploring how the Shia and Sunni divide was fueling what in essence was not only a civil war but a continuation of a long-running religious conflict. With "Forces of Fortune" Nasr has produced another work that should reshape opinions and increase understanding of the broader changes occurring in the Muslim world. Nasr asserts that the rise of a business-minded middle class is reshaping societies across the Muslim world and how the West engages this burgeoning middle class will provide the key to countering the threat from Islamic extremists and Iran. That alone represents a considerable paradigm shift from the West's longtime support of autocratic nations in the region who have failed to democratize and liberalize their economies and their societies. Nasr makes a compelling argument that the way to win over the Muslim world is to engage it over business, capitalism, and trade; not to fight it over religion.

Equally surprising is his assessment that Islamic extremism and anti-Americanism took hold in the region not because of an inevitable clash of cultures (as other scholars have asserted), but because unlike other countries and regions a middle class failed to emerge in the 19th and 20th Centuries. This is hardly surprising given the sclerosis and decline of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th Century, the exploitative effects of colonialism and the autocratic regimes that dominated the latter half of the 20th Century. But more interesting points emerge, such as what Nasr calls the "critical middle" (Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and Dubai) where the emergence of an increasingly economically and politically powerful middle class is already exerting its influence. The protests in Iran over the re-election of President Ahmadinejad were driven in a large part by the emergent middle class. It was lawyers in Pakistan who played a prominent role in street demonstrations that spurred General Musharraf to stand down. Presure from Turkey's growing middle class coupled with EU pressure has forced Prime Minister Erdoðan, President Gül and the AKP party to moderate their more extreme positions. This "critical middle" will hopefully motivate emulation in other Muslim countries, but the West needs to take a more active role in fostering this growth.

Nasr produces some seriously thought provoking ideas and concepts here that hopefully will be debated and argued not only in the West, but in the Muslim world. "Forces of Fortune" is a rather appropriate title and hopefully the opening points in a broader discussion about the future direction for both the West and the Muslim world. "Forces of Fortune" picks up on themes Fareed Zakaria had explored in The Post-American World, but amplifies on them considerably. Best of all Nasr's prose is easily accessible and relatable to the layman or to scholars. As an Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations Nasr certainly is one of the foremost experts on the Middle East; "Forces of Fortune" will prove he knows what he's talking about, lets just hope that people will read it and take action.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating and Enjoyable Book, September 18, 2009
This review is from: Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World (Hardcover)
Vali Nasr is the author of another famous book, the Shia Revival. He is back with a similarly ground breaking important book. Nasr argues that the Muslim world will change in the direction of modernity only if market forces take over. That is how it happened in Medieval Europe. He argues that people adopt secular values and modern values after they enter free markets. That is an idea that is quite familiar to the West, which believes in the power of the Industrial revolution, free markets and capitalism. Nasr's argument is intriguing. In other words, rather waste so much effort in persuading Muslims to become westernized, we should encourage them to become capitalists.

Nasr argues that when Muslims join free market economies they develop vested interest in commerce and everything that commerce requires. He gives the example of how in Turkey free market forces tamed that country's fundamentalist parties to produce the current moderate Islamic democratic government. Nasr argues that free trade does not turn people into secularists, but it moderate their views. The notion that fresh ideas take hold only if people have vested interest in them is a powerful one. Why would people become moderate of secular if it did not make sense in terms of their interests? Moderation he argues is strongest if it is supported by the profit motive.

Nasr gives plenty of examples from Dubai, Iran, Arab world, Indonesia, Turkey and Pakistan to show two things; first Muslims are capable of functioning in the free market, and when they do that they become noticeably more moderate. This is the freshest and most novel book on the Middle East I have read in a long while. It gives a completely new perspective on understanding what is happening in the Middle East, and that is useful at a time the U.S. is still trying to figure out how to defeat extremism. To top it off it is really well-written, educational, and full of insights.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Critical Reading, October 11, 2009
By 
Darwish (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World (Hardcover)
This was an easy book to read. It is full of stories and connects so many dots that are missing in the coverage of Middle East. What I found most intersting is the idea that Islamic values and how Muslims see the world can change, and how that can happen is in ways so intuitive that we have missed it. There is a lot of history and politics in this book, it is insightful and persuasive but above all it gives an Aha moment. It makes you think we are not on the right track right now. If we want to deal with extremism and fundamentalism we have to focus on economics and business. Nasr says that will chnage Islam and the Middle East.

I come from Iran and saw the summer demonstrations first hand. Nasr explains what is happening in Iran very well. The discussion on Iran is definitely worth it. I think everyone shoudl read this book.
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