Description

What can the United States do to help realize its dream of a peaceful, democratic Middle East? Stephen Kinzer offers a surprising answer in this paradigm-shifting book. Two countries in the region, he argues, are America s logical partners in the twenty-first century: Turkey and Iran. Besides proposing this new power triangle , Kinzer also recommends that the United States reshape relations with its two traditional Middle East allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia. This book provides a penetrating, timely critique of America s approach to the world s most volatile region, and offers a startling alternative. Kinzer is a master storyteller with an eye for grand characters and illuminating historical detail. In this book, he introduces us to larger-than-life figures, like a Nebraska schoolteacher who became a martyr to democracy in Iran, a Turkish radical who transformed his country and Islam forever, and a colourful parade of princes, politicians, women of the world, spies, oppressors, liberators, and dreamers.
Kinzer s provocative new view of the Middle East is the rare look that will richly entertain while moving a vital policy debate beyond the stale alternatives of the last fifty years.