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A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East Paperback – July 14, 2009

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Lawrence Freedman (Author)
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4.7 out of 5 stars 10 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 640 pages
  • Publisher: PublicAffairs; Reprint edition (July 14, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1586487019
  • ISBN-13: 978-1586487010
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 1.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #959,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsStumbling through history....
By Roi Soleil on February 9, 2010
Format: Hardcover
I've spent my adult life in the foreign affairs community and much of it in the middle-east, so have been directly involved in the events so eloquently presented in Mr. Freedman's excellent historical summary. I would divide the material presented in Choice of Enemies into two categories: One, the obvious historical presentation of facts and events that have so deeply effected not only the middle-east but the U.S. as well. Two, the more subtle but no-less profound exposure of ineptitude on the part of various U.S. presidents and their administrations (and other foreign leaders as well). It's the latter that I'd like to comment on.

Every 4-8 years we have elections in the United States to select a President, and every 4-8 years a new administration assumes power with its own agenda. The president is fully aware of the very limited time he/she has in office and is also acutely aware of how history treats success/failure. I find it intriguing that our nation's foreign policy and its immediate impact on the world and human lives can be so intertwined with the chief executives personality quirks and his administration's intellect (or lack thereof). I remember a line from All the Presidents Men when Deep Throat responds to Woodward's (Redford)rhetorical comment, "How can these guys do this" with the comment, "These guys (Nixon and company) aren't really all that bright." Example, a Baptist peanut farmer with near-fundamentalist views of right and wrong in power in 1979 during the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis. Completely incapable of viewing nuance in international relations or regional affairs, he often bases his initiatives on his own evaluations of other world leaders and his personal relationships with them.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsThe Uncertainty Principle
By Retired Reader on August 15, 2008
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This book is a history of how the U.S. formulated and executed Middle Eastern Policy over a thirty year period from the Presidency of Jimmy Carter (1978-1982) through that of George W Bush (2000-2008). It also provides a useful, but concise summary of U.S - Middle East relations from the end of WWII to 1978. Essentially it provides an analysis not only of each presidential administration's Middle East Policy, but provides a description of how the policy formation process of each administration actually worked. Not surprisingly it was different for each president.

As the book makes clear, the U.S. has held two remarkably consistent strategic goals for this entire period: the security of the State of Israel; and the security of Middle Eastern oil production. Yet in a volatile region like the Middle East events well beyond U.S. control often erupt to disrupt the most carefully planned policy implementations. Freedman recounts for example how President Carter's tenure was defined by the Iranian Revolution and its subsequent hostage crises, even though Carter really wanted to be remembered for establishing peaceful and enduring relationship between the Israelis and Palestinians. Often the success or failure of U.S. policy in the region was a function of being able to cope with unexpected events or unintended consequences that suddenly threatened one or both of the strategic goals. Reading this book one is struck by how dicey even the best formulated policies are for this region.

Of course Freedman devotes a good deal of attention to the current administration and its involvement in Afghanistan (and Pakistan) and Iraq/Iran. He attempts to trace the thought processes that gradually coalesced into what was known as Operation Iraqi Freedom and its aftermath.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsan enlightened conclusion
By Micheline Beauchemin on November 15, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Mr Freedman explains in, sometimes excruciating details, the events and actors from the 90's leading to the current quagmire in the Middle East. Israel and Palestine are not the main topics, except for the botched attempt to root out Hezbollah in Lebanon. Rightly so because it is the main excuse used by the regimes and the citizens not to tackle more deeply rooted causes of the region descending into mayhem. The author also stresses the need for America to engage into informal dialogues with Iran, akin to the diplomacy going on behind closed doors during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, in order to build up contacts and conduits in case of disaster. If things can go wrong they will go wrong, and the situation is never that bad that it suddenly can't take a turn for the worse.
He also makes clear that America works with different timelines than the countries in the region, with electoral campaigns, regular changes of presidents and majorities in government. The Obama administration lost several years dealing with the economic crisis. In the Middle East changes are slow and rotation of political parties usually irregular but violent. US presidents, congress and the general public have very short attention spans, and the thought of leaving the wretched region sorts itself out is strong. It needs to be resisted.
The USA is in danger of adopting the ways of the Middle East instead of the other way around. The concluding chapter in just a few pages, sums up in limpid arguments, where the US policies have gone wrong and what should be done. Maybe the experiences of Japan and Germany nation building exercises don't apply as the civil societies are not strong in most of the countries engaged in conflicts with the Western world at large and the US in particular, but there is no other game in town.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent read.

Amazing ride through the last few decades of Middle East Policy. Very even handed and fair through every administration.

Published 12 months ago by Lizardking
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Thank you

Published 14 months ago by Susan
4.0 out of 5 starsA good overview of America's role in the Middle East

This book by English professor Lawrence Freedman provides an overview of US policies in the Middle East from the administration of Jimmy Carter through G. W. Bush. Read more

Published on January 16, 2013 by Newton Ooi
4.0 out of 5 starsA choice of Enemies

Very good analysis on how/why American Confronts the M.E issues of the last 5 Presidents, give you a whole pictures of how they are related and dragged on to present time...

Published on August 31, 2008 by Daobi Ngan
5.0 out of 5 starswell worth the effort

thoughtfull marvelously readable and timely written withut the angst and i saw it all tone of most of the current crop of personal reflections that masquarade as learned analyses... Read more

Published on August 14, 2008 by David Sculnick
5.0 out of 5 starsEconomist Review

Here is the Economist's Review of A Choice of Enemies. Although it spends more space on Kenneth Pollack's A Path Out of the Desert, it also does treat Freedman's book. Read more

Published on July 25, 2008 by Economist Reader
5.0 out of 5 starsintriguing look at America, its enemies, and their countless...

The black and white battle between good and evil is a common element of fantasy. But that's all it is - fantasy. Read more

Published on July 9, 2008 by Midwest Book Review

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