"A remarkable synthesis of familiar themes and the latest scholarship on the Middle East. The book is distinguished by its balancing of micro and macro politics and of theory and narrative history."--Ghada Talhami, Lake Forest College

Accessible to students and useful to the expert, this up-to-date volume offers a comprehensive study of important and complicated issues in the contemporary Middle East.
This account, covering all Middle Eastern countries, examines major trends in the history, politics, and economics of the region, with a special focus on events since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. It emphasizes regional comparative groupings of states such as the Fertile Crescent, the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Nile Valley, Turkey, and Iran.
 Tareq Ismael provides readers with an understanding of the forces that shape local and regional politics as well as a basis for how the region locates itself in international affairs. He looks at the new dynamics that have developed since the Gulf War, especially the decay of postcolonial state structures and the strength of American influence in politics. His account of each state stresses historical background, development of political institutions and processes, and socioeconomic issues and institutions.
 Considering forces local to particular areas, Ismael discusses such topics as terrorism, Islamic activism, the growth of state coercive agencies, and the subversion of democratic institutions and processes by regimes.

Tareq Y. Ismael is professor of political science at the University of Calgary.