What the West Is Getting Wrong about the Middle East: Why Islam Is Not the Problem

ISBN-13: 9781788310109 / Angielski / Twarda / 2020 / 280 str.

Omer Taspinar

Opis

The West's actions in the Middle East are based on a fundamental misunderstanding. From Erdo?an's Turkey to the so-called Islamic State and the Syrian Civil War, political Islam is repeatedly assumed to be the main cause of conflict and unrest. This dangerous over-simplification dominates media and policy analysis on the Middle East and skews intervention, preventing long-term solutions and stability. How did the West get everything so wrong? And what can be done to break the vicious circle?Omer Taspinar, who has 20 years' research and policymaking experience, shows that the West's obsession stands in the way of resolving Middle Eastern conflicts. Ranging from current unrest in Turkey to sectarian clashes in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon, he demonstrates the importance of treating the cause - economic, social and institutional factors - rather than the symptom - the continued, and growing, success of Islamist parties and jihadist movements. This unique insider's account is crucial reading for all those seeking to understand Middle Eastern wars and conflicts, past and present, as well as prospects for the future.

Recenzje

To illustrate his contention that the role of Islam is often exaggerated [Ömer Taspinar] offers three diverse case studies: the modern history of Turkey, the sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites, and ISIS. Each of the chapters on these three subjects is worth reading in its own right. Asian Affairs, Journal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs

Spis treści

Introduction: "Why don't we read the Koran?"Chapter 1: Overstating IslamChapter 2: TurkeyChapter 3: Sunnis versus ShiitesChapter 4: The Islamic State in Syria and IraqChapter 5: The Western DisconnectChapter 6: What needs to be done?

O autorze

Ömer Taspinar is Professor of National Security Strategy at the National War College and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, both in Washington, DC. He is a regular commentator on Turkish, UK and US media and has written for a wide range of outlets, including Foreign Affairs, Washington Quarterly, Survival and Huffington Post (an article published last year for the latter was voted 'one of 15 articles that made us think differently about the world in 2015'). He often appears on BBC World News, Al-Jazeera and CNN, and - until its enforced closure - had a weekly column in Today's Zaman. He is also the author of Political Islam and Turkish Nationalism in Turkey and Winning Turkey, co-authored with Philip Gordon, Barack Obama's senior advisor for the Middle East.