Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Khalidi (Resurrecting Empire) provides a compelling history of modern conflict in the Middle East, arguing that current conflicts are by-products of the cold war and the policies, strategies and priorities of the United States and the Soviet Union. The author illustrates how the cold war rivals saw the Middle East—with its vital location and vast oil and gas reserves—as a tool to further their parallel agendas: the Soviets and Americans both subordinated the goal of Arab-Israeli peace and supplied weapons at a profit to both Iraq and Iran during their eight-year war, while the U.S. sought to further its dominance of the region by backing a coup to overthrow democracy in Iran. Khalidi concludes by charting how George W. Bush's Global War on Terror has allowed for a massive military expansion in the Middle East and resulted in futile and feckless policies that may have increased the actual risk to American citizens and wreaked havoc on the region. Khalidi has written an important book, essential for anyone concerned about the stability of the Middle East. (Mar.)
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Review

Review Publisher's Weekly - January 5, 2009

"Khalidi provides a compelling history of modern conflict in the Middle East, arguing that current conflicts are by-products of the cold war and the policies, strategies and priorities of the United States and the Soviet Union. . . . Khalidi has written an important book, essential for anyone concerned about the stability of the Middle East."

Review Kirkus - January 1, 2009

"Though this brief work doesn't aim to be an exhaustive survey, it ably gets the reader up to speed on many of the disputes that have made the Middle East a flashpoint in today's U.S. foreign policy. . . . Concise look at a crucial period in one of the world's most explosive regions."

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (February 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807003107
• ISBN-13: 978-0807003107
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #337,692 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Revealing History, April 14, 2009

By	Kenneth Le Abeywickrama (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This scholarly work by Prof. Khalidi offers a highly readable history of the Middle East by delving into the numerous historical events that shaped the current situation, presenting these events from the perspectives of the different protagonists and analysing their motives. The imperial aspirations of the big powers from the 19th century, their Cold War and post-Cold War rivalry, provide the background to their continuing influence in this region through their support for venal elites who run some of their client states. The imperial embrace of weak nations under various pretexts such as stability and democracy is often a kiss of death in the longer term. While countries in many other regions have been able to partially extricate themselves from big power politics, the Middle East remains an area big powers still control through client states governed mostly by the undemocratic rulers who rely on external support for their continuation in power. Western readers whose knowledge of the region is based on sanitised versions of world events by "TV experts" and political spin doctors will find this book disturbing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Middle East in the Cold War, July 19, 2009

By	Sacramento Book Review "SacramentoBookReview.com" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

The Middle East has been in the news since the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11, the United States went into these countries trying to stop further terrorist attacks against the United States. Rashid Khalidi examines the role that the United States and the USSR played in the Middle East, and the affects that their meddling has had on the Middle East after the Cold War was over. Rashid Khalidi argues that the United States was the more dominant power in the Middle East than the USSR, and that both the USSR and the United States played a game of real politik, with supporting certain regimes even if they were not democratic; as long as you were not with the Soviets, and this grand political game has had an affect on these countries many years after the end of the Cold War.

This is a well written, and argued book. Mr. Khalidi examines documents that have been recently unclassified by both sides of the Cold War, to show that the Soviets and the Americans were willing to work with any group that suited their interests, and even betray groups after their usefulness was over. From playing both sides of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, to supporting the creation of Israel. Both sides wanted to get rid of the influence of the former colonizers, the British and the French, and become the dominant powers. Mr. Khalidi writes a scholarly work, but it does not feel like one. It is well written, and the evidence supports his thesis. This is for students of Cold War and modern Middle Eastern history.

Reviewed by
Kevin Winter

16 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Important but doesn't give Arabs enough agency, March 7, 2009

By	Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is an important book from the well known scholar Rashid Khalidi whose previosu writings have usually focused on the Arab-Israei conflict.(The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood). However he has, of late, expanded his interests to examine the entire Middle East and particularly the 'western' influence and meddling in the region.

In this work he seeks to examine the role of the Cold War in the Middle East. For a long time scholars have spoken of what is called an 'Arab Cold War', the internal struggle between Arab regimes who were allied with the U.S and Russia. Egypt was a lynchpin in this for the Egyptian Nationalist government of Nasser and Sadat flirted with he Soviets for some twenty years. Nasserism also influenced revolutions in Yemen and attempted coups in Jordan and Lebanon, as well as Baghdad. Syria under the Ba'ath and the Asad family was a close ally of the Soviets. So was Iraq under the Ba'ath. On the other side were the Saudis, the Gulf States, Egypt after 1980, Jordan's King Hussein, the Yemenite royalists, Baghdad before 1968 and Turkey. Lebanon was always problematic, torn by chaos after 1976 it had numerous influences. The Palestinians too curried favor with the Soviets, especially the PFLP and George Habash.

Islamism and its rise among the Brotherhood, Hamas, and particularly in Iran in 1979 placed a third counterbalance to this Cold War reivalry in the region. Herein lies the problem with the Khalidi analysis. Khalidi wants to show that the U.S and Soviet Union 'sowed crises' in the Middle East. This follows in the footsteps of the older idea that the carving up of the region in 1918 by Europeans also 'sowed' the problems of today. But both of these views neglect Arab agency. What of Mumar Qadafi of Libya, Nasser and the Saudis? What of the Shah and the Ayatollah. All of these men used the West and operated within the contexts they needed to and each in their own way also stood up to the West. This is not to mention Saddam Hussein whose 1991 Gulf War actually pitted him against the U.S and the Russians along with others.

Ibn Saud and the rise of Saudi predates both the 1918 carving up of the Ottoman empire and the Cold War. Hardly a tool of U.S policy the Saudis have worked with the U.S and extended their influence. The revolutionary regimes, such as Nasser, also played the West, sometimes using Western money to build the Aswan Dam and inviting Soviet advisors to help them fight the Israelis. Israel too, now seen as a close aly of the U.S, once coveted close relations with the Soviets.

To ascribe all that has happaned in the Middle East to 'the west' and blame it on the Cold War ignored the agency of the Arab, Persian, Turkish, Jewish and other peoples in the region. Far from always being puppets they had great agecny, their own reolutions and movements and they choose when and where to fight their wars, wars that forced the West into the region in many cases. The U.S in fact long ignored the Middle East between 1948 and 1956 until the Suez crises for Ike to take the side of Egypt against the UK, hardly an example of Cold War 'sowing crises'.

This book is important but places too much emphasis on the importance of the West and fails to see the important role that local rulers played in decision making. While the fad is to blame others for the problems of the Middle East this book doesn't give local people credit where credit is due for their innovations and political experiments.

Seth J. Frantzman