Globalization and Geopolitics in the Middle East: Old games, new rules (Durham Modern Middle East and Islamic World)
'Anoushiravan Ehteshami combines the rich contextual knowledge of an area specialist with a masterful grasp of the rapidly changing dynamics of international politics. The result is an indispensable study of the impact of globalization on the geopolitics of the Middle East. This book will be welcomed as a major addition by specialists on the region, but Ehteshami's lucid style also makes it an accessible – indeed, inviting – introduction for non-specialists. Hopefully, it will garner the attention of policy makers as well.'-Ian Shapiro, Yale University, USA and author of Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy against Global Terror'This useful survey of the dilemmas that confront the vast and complex region between Morocco and Central Asia in this era of rapid and world-wide change – and of the corresponding opportunities and challenges that the region itself represents for the world as a whole – should be useful for both beginning students and long-time observers of the Middle East.'-Lisa Anderson, Columbia University, USA'Anoushiravan Ehteshami brings together the disciplinary focus of the social scientist and the expertise of the Middle Eastern specialist to provide a uniquely area-specific study of globalization. Thoroughly informed and always lucid, this book examines globalization’s impact on perhaps the most critical region of the world, and convincingly argues that geopolitics can explain both the uncertain unfolding of and resistance to wider changes in the local context. It powerfully demonstrates that the interdependence and transnationalism of the Middle East are dependent on strategic events such as the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq – a perspective of immense analytical and policy significance.'-James Piscatori, University of Oxford, UK 'Anoushirivan Ehteshami’s important study, which is set apart from other recent volumes by his vast knowledge of the region... represents a major contribution to our understanding of the negative way globalization is perceived in this critically important part of the world.'-Robert E. Looney, Middle East Journal, Vol. 62, No. 1, Winter 2008