Castles Made of Sand: A Century of Anglo-American Espionage and Intervention in the Middle East
Gerolymatos (Red Acropolis), a historian at Simon Fraser University, explores the problematic nexus of British and U.S. espionage and diplomacy in the Middle East in this provocative history. Surveying a century of Anglo-American efforts to secure political and economic interests in the region--primarily through the spy craft of Britain's MI6 and America's CIA--the author finds a dismal pattern of policy "held hostage by ephemeral notions and self-delusion." Following the collapse of the Ottoman caliphate after WWI, first the British and later the Americans sought security by "supporting Islamic militancy--including such groups as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood-- as a counterweight to nationalism and later communism." If the policies were ad hoc, the results were often unintended. Anglo-American support for Islamic extremists inadvertently "stimulated forces that... ultimately spun out of control." The Soviet Union was defeated, but "the new threat to the Middle East would be seen to be the rapidly expanding influence of political Islam." Extensively researched--with detailed source notes and an expansive bibliography--and cogently argued, Gerolymatos's study of diplomacy by espionage is timely and instructive.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.