As Barack Obama seeks to chart a new course in American foreign policy, David Gardner addresses the controversial but urgent question: why is the Middle East so dysfunctional? And what can be done about it?

Clear-sighted and never flinching from uncomfortable truths, Gardner draws on his acute grasp of history and decades of experience covering the region to look at why conflict, despotism and sectarianism continue to flourish in the Arab world whilst they decline elsewhere. The supposed 'Middle East exception' is in fact, he argues, a product of the West's own making. By supporting...

As Barack Obama seeks to chart a new course in American foreign policy, one of the English language media's most respected authorities on the Arab world, David Gardner, addresses the controversial but urgent question: why is the Middle East so dysfunctional? And what can be done about it? Clear-sighted, never flinching from unpalatable truths, Gardner draws on his acute grasp of history and decades of experience covering the region to look at why conflict, despotism, and sectarianism continue to flourish in the Arab world while they decline everywhere else. The "Middle East exception" is,...