Contributors -- Introduction -- Adam Ward -- /War in Syria and Iraq -- Chapter One The Crisis of the Iraqi State -- /Toby Dodge and Becca Wasser -- Chapter Two Iran, the Gulf States and the Syrian Civil War -- /Emile Hokayem -- Chapter Three Assessing Syria's Jihad -- /Charles Lister -- Chapter Four Turkey's Syria Predicament -- /Henri J. Barkey -- Chapter Five Jordan: Caught in the Middle Again -- /Ben Fishman -- Regional powers -- Chapter Six The Gulf States in an Era of American Retrenchment -- /Emile Hokayem and Becca Wasser -- Chapter Seven Obama and the Middle East: The Politics, Strategies and Difficulties of American Restraint -- /Dana H. Allin -- Chapter Eight Is Russia an Outside Power in the Gulf? -- /Samuel Charap -- Chapter Nine China and the Middle East -- Alexander Neill -- Chapter Ten India: Gulf Security Partner in Waiting? -- /Rahul Roy-Chaudhury -- Chapter Eleven Securing Middle East Oil -- /Pierre Noel.