The Middle East in International Relations

Introduction; Part I. Concepts, States and Regions: 1. International relations of the Middle East: five approaches; 2. The making of foreign policy: states and societies; Part II. History: 3. The formation of the modern Middle East: global economy, state formation, world war; 4. The Cold War: global conflict, regional upheavals; 5. After the Cold War: the maturing of the 'Greater West Asian Crisis'; Part III. Analytic Issues: 6. Military conflict: war, revolt, strategic rivalry; 7. Modern ideologies: political and religious; 8. Challenges to the state: transnational movements; 9. International political economy: regional and global; Part IV. Conclusion: 10. The Middle East in international perspective.

Fred Halliday is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics. His publications include Two Hours that Shook the World (2001) and Nation and Religion in the Middle East (2000).

'A masterly survey by a scholar with a long and unusually rich personal experience of the region.' E. Roger Owen, Harvard University 'Mr Halliday offers an authoritative analysis of the armed conflict, social upheaval and political economics that formed the background to the attack on America in 2001 and the invasion of Iraq nearly two years later.' The Economist 'A most worthwhile study that should become compulsory reading for all students of the Middle East.' Contemporary Review 'The Middle East in International Relations may well be regarded as his chef d'oeuvre, bringing together as it does not only the borad range of his earlier writings on the area but also a formidable array of other contributions.' Asian Affairs 'Firstly, Halliday arouses curiosity when he compares political theories to mushrooms: Some are eatable, some enjoyable and a third category is simply poisonous ...Halliday explains particularly convincingly the reasons for the fast and thorough adoption of the exogenous ideology of nationalism in the Arabic region. ... The real value of the chapter lies in the question that Halliday poses about which movements/phenomena/factors are international (inter-state) and which are truly trans-national. He answers this question in an extraordinarily conclusive way using the five case studies of nationalist movements, ... a well thought through appendix of maps, charts, diagrams, and statistic information ... The exquisitely comprehensive selection of sources by itself would justify the 'subsequent use'. This publication, therefore, belongs in every serious Near East library' Henner Fuertig