An inspiring and thought provoking read.
This is part travelogue; part explanation of the Arab Spring and its outcomes and part an attempt to understand the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how the former went so awry.
Emma Sky is not slow to make use of the contacts that she has developed throughout her career to help her to access many of the Middle East countries that she discusses in this book. There is inevitably and element of name dropping as she meets many Iraqi politicians and Western ambassadorial and foreign service staff. However this is not an attempt at self-aggrandisement but rather as a means of gathering as wide a range of views as she can in order to try to make sense of the developing situation in the Middle East. This is not a static book it is written over a number of years and as such it provides a snap shot of how situations developed over time – how the Arab Spring was a success in some countries but a disaster in others such as Syria. How Syria has come to represent the total failure of Western diplomacy and a failure to challenge the rise of Russian and Chinese influence in what was a traditionally Western sphere of influence.
It is also a book that links the cultural development of the region with events of today and for me this is one of the most important aspects of this book. Having read this book I now know that it was the seizure of Mecca by radical Islamists that led to Saudi Arabia becoming more insular and which is making its attempts to reform more difficult today.
This is also a book that encourages you to think and it at all possible to travel to the region yourself to experience the hospitality of the Arab world while learning about the wide range of culture existing in the region.
Emma Sky is not slow to make use of the contacts that she has developed throughout her career to help her to access many of the Middle East countries that she discusses in this book. There is inevitably and element of name dropping as she meets many Iraqi politicians and Western ambassadorial and foreign service staff. However this is not an attempt at self-aggrandisement but rather as a means of gathering as wide a range of views as she can in order to try to make sense of the developing situation in the Middle East. This is not a static book it is written over a number of years and as such it provides a snap shot of how situations developed over time – how the Arab Spring was a success in some countries but a disaster in others such as Syria. How Syria has come to represent the total failure of Western diplomacy and a failure to challenge the rise of Russian and Chinese influence in what was a traditionally Western sphere of influence.
It is also a book that links the cultural development of the region with events of today and for me this is one of the most important aspects of this book. Having read this book I now know that it was the seizure of Mecca by radical Islamists that led to Saudi Arabia becoming more insular and which is making its attempts to reform more difficult today.
This is also a book that encourages you to think and it at all possible to travel to the region yourself to experience the hospitality of the Arab world while learning about the wide range of culture existing in the region.