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A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East
Random House
July 2008
On Sale: July 15, 2008
592 pages
ISBN: 1400065488
EAN: 9781400065486
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The greatest danger to America’s peace and prosperity, notes
leading Middle East policy analyst Kenneth M. Pollack, lies
in the political repression, economic stagnation, and
cultural conflict running rampant in Arab and Muslim
nations. By inflaming political unrest and empowering
terrorists, these forces pose a direct threat to America’s
economy and national security. The impulse for America might
be to turn its back on the Middle East in frustration over
the George W. Bush administration’s mishandling of the Iraq
War and other engagements with Arab and Muslim countries.
But such a move, Pollack asserts, will only exacerbate
problems. He counters with the idea that we must continue to
make the Middle East a priority in our policy, but in a
humbler, more humane, more realistic, and more cohesive way. Pollack argues that Washington’s greatest sin in its
relations with the Middle East has been its persistent
unwillingness to make the sustained and patient effort
needed to help the people of the Middle East overcome the
crippling societal problems facing their governments and
societies. As a result, the United States has never had a
workable comprehensive policy in the region, just a skein of
half-measures intended either to avoid entanglement or to
contain the influence of the Soviet Union. Beyond identifying the stagnation of civic life in Arab and
Muslim states and the cumulative effect of our misguided
policies, Pollack offers a long-term strategy to ameliorate
the political, economic, and social problems that underlie
the region’s many crises. Through his suggested policies,
America can engage directly with the governments of the
Middle East and indirectly with its people by means of
cultural exchange, commerce, and other “soft†approaches. He
carefully examines each of the region’s most contested
areas, including Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Lebanon, as well as
the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and explains how the
United States can address each through mutually reinforcing
policies. At a time when the nation will be facing critical decisions
about our continued presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, A Path
Out of the Desert is guaranteed to stimulate debate about
America’s humanitarian, diplomatic, and military involvement
in the Middle East.
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