Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East Paperback – Illustrated, January 1, 2010

This scholarly work by Prof. Khalidi offers a highly readable history of the Middle East by delving into the numerous historical events that shaped the current situation, presenting these events from the perspectives of the different protagonists and analysing their motives. The imperial aspirations of the big powers from the 19th century, their Cold War and post-Cold War rivalry, provide the background to their continuing influence in this region through their support for venal elites who run some of their client states. The imperial embrace of weak nations under various pretexts such as stability and democracy is often a kiss of death in the longer term. While countries in many other regions have been able to partially extricate themselves from big power politics, the Middle East remains an area big powers still control through client states governed mostly by the undemocratic rulers who rely on external support for their continuation in power. Western readers whose knowledge of the region is based on sanitised versions of world events by "TV experts" and political spin doctors will find this book disturbing.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I found it to be logical in explaining the cold war era, as it also incorporated the effect it had on the Middle East. It was a great eye-opener showing the US and Soviet Unions struggle to gain dominance and power over the Middle East. I was actually thinking after I had read it `what would have been different if the US had not won the cold war with the Soviet Unions demise'?A very good read! Left me thinking!

Great book and really good analysis of the cold war

No page numbers, only states "location" in kindle version. Very inconvenient for citations.

Khalidi takes a historical perspective on the Middle East and its crisis yet uses the lens of foreign involvement as the independent variable throughout. As a result he will leave some details in, others out, add a few interweaving points in order to claim that the U.S., Russia, France and Britain among others have 'sown' the seeds of crisis.The argument holds water, especially in regards to the Cold War. However, this is not to ignore the fact that internal Arab disputes and their own 'cold war' and realism's hold on dictatorships have given them a few problems all their own. While the U.S. in the last decade has meddled greatly in Iraq and Afghanistan it cannot be said that all of the middle east is still a product of foreign meddling. The middle east is in the international economy and so is its oil. It was rudely introduced to realpolitik in the post WWI era and is becoming quite proficient in the skill today.It is possible to 'help' too much. Khalidi's description of Lebanon's over-dependence on foreign sources is thought-provoking at best. I don't think world powers are the only pieces of leverage that could extract a tight fisted dictator... then again on this day in summer 2011 my words our hindsight, Khalidi didn't see this coming.

Well-written history of the Middle East during the Cold War. Khalidi finds in the struggle between the U.S. and U.S S.R., many of the causes of present troubles in the Middle East. Cold War, and post-World War II (he highlights that war as an important event itself), concerns over strategic territory, resources and ideological competition, drove the actions of the superpowers.The results of foreign interventions, Khalidi argues, supporting insurrections, fixing elections, supplying weapons and building military bases, to name a few examples, resulted in increased interstate warfare, as well as the "undermining of democracy," and the growth of authoritarian regimes.

Book was exactly as described "like new". And Khalidi is a powerful writer dealing with today's (and yesterday's) events in the Middle East.Read him!

To all of those who want to understand why people of Middle East don't trust the US politics and government, you should read this book.

Il libro offre un bel quadro di ciò che si propone di fare: dimostrare come l'interventismo americano abbia seminato instabilità nella regione. Ci riesce ma è un po troppo ripetitivo e a volte cade nel wishful thinking, ma nel complesso libro scorrevole da leggere.