Overview
For decades, students and professors have turned to The Middle East as their preferred source for understanding one of the most complex and intriguing areas of the world. This balanced and impartial classic thoroughly examines the events and trends of the Middle East that make the region so important and volatile. The eleventh edition of The Middle East features coverage of the political, cultural, and economic aspects of headline-making news and the history behind them. It also offers readers conceptual analysis of the Middle East and the region's role within the global arena.Thematic chapters on Islam, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Persian Gulf conflicts, Middle Eastern oil and gas, and U.S. Middle East policy address overarching trends and events that affect the entire region. Updated country profiles provide individual histories of each nation along with vital statistics. New to this edition are profiles of Turkey and the Palestinian Authority as well as a foreword by scholar and area specialist Richard B. Parker, who looks at the current states of the Middle East and U.S. involvement there. Many of the profiles have been significantly revised. Coverage of events extends through 2006.
Synopsis
Political scientists and scholars of Arabic and Islam, all working in the US, update once more the 25-year-old reference on the region for non-specialists. In addition to profiles of 12 countries—the Persian Gulf states are lumped into a single chapter—they discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict, US policy in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, Middle Eastern oil and gas, and 15 centuries of Islam. When the text was completed, no weapons of mass destruction had been discovered in Iraq. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR