The Contemporary Middle East (International Relations)

Introduction

As historic issues continue to fester, historical controversies resurface with renewed intensity, and new threats to global security arise, the contemporary Middle East remains a hotbed of activity and the epicenter of international attention. Even as the “Arab Spring” has transformed the complexion of the region, reoccurring issues such as the Arab-Israeli conflict and Sunni-Shia divide still languish. Civil wars in Syria and Yemen convulse the area, Iraq struggles to reconstitute itself, and Iran moves ominously into the nuclear age. Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism, internecine conflict, and civil war have made the area a veritable crucible that has jeopardized regional stability and resurrected superpower rivalries.

General Overview

It is virtually impossible to keep abreast of the prolific literature in this constantly changing, tumultuous part of the world. The researcher—and librarian—is literally inundated with a plethora of information, making it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Distinguishing reputable, authoritative sources from the abundance of tendentious material is itself a challenge. With an emphasis on more recent works, this article represents a selection of some of the best resources as opposed to a comprehensive collection, addressing an overall approach as in Cleveland and Bunton 2016 so much, but also some of the most seminal topics plaguing the region ranging from the repercussions of the Arab Spring to the proliferation of terrorist groups and regional instability, to the impact on individual countries and US relations with them.

Cleveland, William L., and Martin Bunton. History of the Modern Middle East. 6th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2016.
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Looks at the profound changes that have affected the region during the 19th and 20th centuries. A textbook that presents material in a well-balanced approach for students of the Middle East. For the American student/researcher/librarian without wide access to non-US-produced publications, the following sources will prove to be essential: Cuadermos de la Biblioteca Islámica “Felix Maria Pareja” and Études maghrébine: Revue de Recherche et de Bibliographie Maghrébines.
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Beyond the Arab Spring

The Arab Spring was a set or series of popular, democratic uprisings that began in Tunisia morphing to Egypt, Yemen, and Syria. The collection of events is documented in Sadiki 2015, within a regional context described in Bauer 2015, with an explanation of the ideological underpinnings found in Lynch 2014 and Karakoç 2015, while what led up to the phenomenon is in Rand 2013 and the impact is described in Brownlee, et al. 2015 and Sadiki 2015, while responses from external actors is covered in Haas and Lesch 2013. The far-ranging impact of protests and demonstrations are fully covered in Saikal and Acharya 2014.

Bauer, Patricia, ed. Arab Spring Challenges for Democracy and Security in the Mediterranean. New York: Routledge, 2015.
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The Arab Spring is placed in the context of Mediterranean politics. There is a focus how far Euro-Mediterranean relations are challenged by related developed. What is the relationship between sectarianism and democracy in Arab countries and Euro-Arab relations?
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Brownlee, Jason, Tarek Masoud, and Andrew Reynolds. The Arab Spring: Pathways of Repression and Reform. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199660063.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The argument is made that the success of domestic uprisings depends upon the absence of a hereditary executive and receipts of minimal oil rents. Even when opposition forces topple dictators, prior levels of the socioeconomic development and state strength determine whether democracy, authoritarianism, or civil war follows.
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Haas, Mark L., and David W. Lesch, eds. The Arab Spring: Change and Resistance in the Middle East. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2013.
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A collection of essays that cover the completed revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, Syria undergoing one, and Saudi Arabia and Jordan avoiding the phenomenon. Concentration is on the regional and international responses to the Arab Spring.
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Karakoç, Jülide. Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Before and after the Arab Uprisings. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
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An examination of the roots of authoritarianism from Turkey to Egypt. Focus is on violence, gender, and minority issues.
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Lynch, Marc, ed. The Arab Uprising Explained: New Contentious Politics in the Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.
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Leading scholars examine the causes, dynamics, and effects of the Arab uprisings.
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Rand, Dafna Hochma. Roots of the Arab Spring: Contested Authority and Political Change in the Middle East. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.
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As the senior policy planner in the State Department, the author outlines the systemic forces that led up to the Arab Spring.
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Sadiki, Larbi, ed. Routledge Handbook of the Arab Spring: Rethinking Democratization. New York: Routledge, 2015.
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A wide range of topics, including the context and content of democratization, Egypt, women, and the Arab Spring.
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Saikal, Amin, and Amitav Acharya, eds. Democracy and Reform in the Middle East and Asia: Social Protest and Authoritarian Rule after the Arab Spring. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2014.
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An exploration of the global impact of the protests, both ideological and influence on opposition groups, as well as the prospects for a democratic transformation in authoritarian and semi-authoritarian governments.
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Syrian Civil War/Syria-Arab Spring

A part of the seamless web of revolutionary activity in the Middle East has been the push for democratization in Syria. The al-Assad regime’s response was to violently attempt to repress peaceful demonstrations. The Arab revolutionary uprising that began with a self-immolation in Tunisia, cascading to a regime overthrow in Libya and Egypt and a civil war in Syria has left the Middle East in a period of uncertainty and chaos. Lesch 2012 has had a long-time relationship with the al-Assad family and the family’s regime, giving him an important inside perspective, where Lawson 2014 and Cooper 2015 provide an elementary history of the civil conflict in Syria. Syria within an international political context is found in Phillips 2016. Lister 2016 covers the rise and role of al-Qaeda and ISIS in Syria. A comprehensive overview of Syrian history that has led to civil war is covered in Abboud 2015. For anecdotal and memorials of how the conflict has affected individuals and communities, there is Darke 2014, Littell 2015, Olimat 2014, Sahner 2014, and Yazbeck 2015.

Abboud, Samer Nassif. Syria. Cambridge, UK, and Malden, MA: Polity, 2015.
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A historical view of Syria delineating the various levels of the country’s society linked to political dynamics that have ultimately led to civil war in a series of phases.
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Cooper, Tom. Syrian Conflagration: The Syrian Civil War, 2011–2013. Solihull, UK: Helion, 2015.
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A comprehensive historical treatment of the violent upheaval in Syria. Covers supporters of the al-Assad regime and the opposition with an examination of the impact on the region.
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Darke, Diana. My House in Damascus: An Inside View of the Syrian Revolution. London: Haus, 2014.
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Details an insider’s view of the cultural and complex religious and ethnic communities. Provides a comparative analysis of what is going on in Syria with events in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. Life on the ground sets the background for the analysis.
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Lawson, Fred Haley. Implications for the 2011–13 Syrian Uprising for the Middle Eastern Regional Security Complex. Occasional Paper No. 14. Doha, Qatar: Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, 2014.
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Unrest in Iraq and Egypt early in 2011 and the outbreak of violence in Syria created an intricate web of interstate security dynamics. The connection between domestic policy conflicts and shifts in external alignments across the region is explored.
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Lesch, David W. Syria: The Fall of the House of al-Assad. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.
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An explanation for al-Assad’s failed leadership, historic transformation from a bearer of hope to a reactionary tyrant, and the regime’s violent response to a popular uprising in the wake of the Arab Spring.
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Lister, Charles R. The Syrian Jihad: Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
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An explanation and an assessment of the rise of Sunni jihadist movements in Syria since 2011 are provided. He covers the existence of foreign fighters in the various violence-oriented organizations.
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Littell, Jonathan. Syrian Notebooks: Inside the Homs Uprising. London: Verso, 2015.
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The author was smuggled into Homs in 2012 by the Free Syrian Army where he spent three weeks in Homs and had a first-hand observation of the violence that rained down upon the city.
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Olimat, Muhamad, ed. Handbook of Arab Women and Arab Spring: Challenges and Opportunities. Abington, UK: Routledge, 2014.
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Examines the role of Arab women during the Arab Spring and their contribution to the ongoing process of change facing the region. The discussion occurs within the context of the process of democratization.
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Phillips, Christopher. The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the Middle East. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016.
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The Syrian civil war was primarily compounded by regional factors, most prominently by a perceived vacuum of US influence out of which a new regional political order emerged. This time, it was the United States, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar that competed with each other for influence with Syria at the center.
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Sahner, Christian C. Among the Ruins: Syria Past and Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
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Compares the conditions in Syria before and after the demonstrations and accounts for the development of a civil war. There is an emphasis on religious identification. He provides the historical background to the current violence by searching the origins of Syria back to the pre-Islamic period.
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Yazbeck, Samar. The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria. Translated by Nashua Gowanlock and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp. London: Rider, 2015.
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A description of the grief and terror in Idlib province in northern Syria. The author charts the rise of the Islamists and their claims to revolution.
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Islam and Its Contemporary Role with Terrorism

The contemporary, worldwide threat to the loss of innocent life and state instability has been the phenomenon of terrorism. The action of political violence has targeted local populations in addition to the West in general, its symbol of civilization and an expansion of Islamic identification in the search for ways to reestablish the idea of a caliphate. From a historic and Islamic perspective, there is Burke 2015, Esposito 2003, Gabriel 2015, Ganor 2015, Kepel 2003, Maher 2016, and Roy 2016. For international political responses, look at Filiu 2015, Inbar and Frisch 2007, Worth 2016, and specifically in Europe, Rabasa and Benard 2015. Subsections, covered with original and secondary sources, examine the explicit Islamic terrorist organizations of al-Qaeda, Hamas, ISIS, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Qods Force), Nabhat al-Nusra, and the Khorasan Group. Militancy in Egypt is a subject brought up in Cambanis 2016.

Burke, Jason. The New Threat: The Past, Present, and Future of Islamic Militancy. New York: New Press, 2015.
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Describes the grief and terror in Idlib province in northern Syria. Charts the rise of the Islamists and their claims of revolution.
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Cambanis, Thanassis. Once upon a Revolution: An Egyptian Story. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2016.
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Covers young Egyptian secular activists’ protests against President Mubarak in 2011 through the election of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in 2014 and the country’s security forces. Points out Egyptian political culture holds stability with the military and authoritarian leadership in high regard.
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Esposito, John L. Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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There is an explanation based upon the Qurʾan, the life of the Prophet, Islamic law, the employment of violence in a religious context, and terrorism. Focus is on the rise of extremist groups, their ideology, and tactics. An argument is made that frustration with United States–Middle East policy has led to the rise of jihadi violence.
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Filiu, Jean-Pierre. From Deep State to Islamic State: The Arab Counter-Revolution and Its Jihadi Legacy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
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Points out the tactics and strategies employed by Middle Eastern autocracies, particularly in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Algeria, all of which attempted to crush recently occurred democratic uprisings. There is a new phenomenon of radical violence that has redefined the West’s relationship with terrorism and the Middle East. ISIS is a contemporary expression of a highly digitized society.
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Gabriel, Mark A. Islam and Terrorism: The Truth about ISIS, the Middle East, and Islamic Jihad. Rev. ed. Lake Mary, FL: FrontLine, 2015.
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Relates the use of violence in early Islamic history.
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Ganor, Boaz. Global Alert: The Rationality of Modern Islamist Terrorism and the Challenge to the Liberal Democratic World. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015.
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Describes the motivation in modern Islam to use terrorism and the different stages of carrying out a terrorist attack. Shows how terrorist groups exploit democratic institutions and the difficulty that democracies have in fighting terrorism.
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Inbar, Efraim, and Hillel Frisch, eds. Radical Islam and International Security: Challenges and Responses. New York: Routledge, 2007.
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An examination of the Islamic challenge to Western institutions, identifying patterns of uniformity and variation in radical Islam, with possible policies to confront Islamic extremists.
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Kepel, Giles. Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.
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An explanation of the rise of militant Islam specifically for a Western audience and based upon documents, interviews, and archival material. Traces the rise of contemporary Islamic movements from their origin in the middle of the 20th century through the following period and expanding globally.
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Maher, Shiraz. Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea. London: C. Hurst, 2016.
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A discussion of the foundation of Salafi-Jihadism from its beginnings in the Hindu Kush to the jihadi insurgencies of the 1990s and the tragedy of 9/11. There is also a description of a warrior theory that emerges.
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Milton-Edwards, Beverly. Islam and Violence in the Modern Era. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
DOI: 10.1057/9780230625570Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A discussion of the dimensions of Islam and their relationship to violence, all a part of political, historical, faith, power, rebellion, and struggle within and outside the Muslim world.
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Rabasa, Angel, and Cheryl Benard. Eurojihad: Patterns of Islamic Radicalization and Terrorism in Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
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An examination of sources of radicalization of Muslim communities in Europe and the responses from European governments and societies. Describes the history, methods, and evaluation of Islamic extremism.
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Roy, Olivier. Jihad and Death: The Global Appeal of Islamic State. London: C. Hurst, 2016.
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ISIS mobilized marginalized Muslims around a sophisticated narrative, reviving the idea of the caliphate and placing it into a modern form of heroism, death, and nihilism, all bonded to violence.
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Worth, Robert F. A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, from Tahrir Square to ISIS. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016.
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Tracks the underlying anger that fed the Arab Spring through a series of individual, personalized stories including a Libyan rebel, a Yemeni farmer whose life is in poverty, and an Egyptian physician who is loyal to the Muslim Brotherhood, but seeks a newly styled democracy.
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al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda, an extremist Sunni Muslim organization originally led by Osama Bin Laden, is covered in a basic way in Byman 2015, Gunaratna 2002, Miller 2015, and Rajan 2015 and encompasses three branches: al-Qaeda (The Base/Foundation) with allied groups, AQAP (al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula); AQIM (al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb). For an understanding of the group’s ideology, there is Baken and Mantzikos 2015 and Holbrook 2014. Osama Bin Laden’s disdain for the country of his birth is found in Small and Hacker 2015 and a general biographical approach is Bergen 2006 and Miller 2015. The group’s interest in violence and terrorism is found in Ransdorp and Normark 2015.

Baken, Denise N., and Ioannis Mantzikos. Al Qaeda: The Transformation of Terrorism in the Middle East and North Africa. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International, 2015.
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An analysis of al-Qaeda’s belief system with regard to the use of violence to achieve its ends. There is a description of al-Qaeda’s precursors and its ties to various business associations that provide much of the group’s finances.
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Bergen, Peter. The Osama Bin Laden I Know: The Oral History of al Qaeda’s Leader. New York: Free Press, 2006.
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A biography of the prominent terrorist from his family life, his refuge in the Sudan, and then his activities in Afghanistan. The narrative is augmented by interviews with eyewitness figures who had access to him.
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Byman, Daniel. Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
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An examination of al-Qaeda’s history from its origins in Afghanistan to the present, focusing on its perseverance and adaptations since 9/11 and limits on US and allied counterterrorism efforts.
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Gunaratna, Rohan. Inside al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
DOI: 10.7312/guna12692Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An examination of al-Qaeda’s financial infrastructure, its training regimen, and the clandestine operational network in the West.
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Holbrook, Donald. The al-Qaeda Doctrine: The Framing and Evolution of the Leadership’s Public Discourse. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
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Analyzes more than 250 statements by the organization’s two key leaders, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Usman Bin Laden from the late 1990s to 2010s. This is an in-depth and systematic analysis of these persons.
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Miller, Flagg. The Audacious Ascetic: What the Bin Laden Tapes Reveal about al Qaeda. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
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Evidence is brought to bear that al-Qaeda’s coherence diminished when Bin Laden began to pander to Western television networks in an attempt to galvanize heterodox, anti-Western, Islamic armed struggles against the United States.
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Rajan, V. G. Julie. Al Qaeda’s Global Crisis: The Islamic State, Takfir, and the Genocide of Muslims. New York: Routledge, 2015.
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A focus on the crises facing al-Qaeda and how the mass killings of Muslims has become a challenge to the organization’s credibility as a leader of Islamic jihadist organizations.
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Ransdorp, Magnus, and Magnus Normark, eds. Understanding Terrorism, Innovation and Learning: Al-Qaeda and Beyond. New York: Routledge, 2015.
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An examination of the role of terrorists’ innovation and learning in theory and practice, placed in the context of three specific EU case studies.
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Small, Thomas, and Jonathan Hacker. Path of Blood: The Story of Al Qaeda’s War on the House of Saud. New York: Overlook Press, 2015.
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A description of the operations of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia based upon materials from the Saudi Ministry of the Interior and photos and documents from AQAP (al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula). Covers the Saudi attempt to destroy AQAP during the period 2002 to 2005.
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Hamas

Hamas (Ḥārakat al-Muqawamāh al-‘Islāmiyyah, the Islamic Resistance Movement) is one of the more prominent terrorist groups currently operating in the Middle East that can be assessed by examining its own source material as well as critical analyses.

Original Sources

A researcher has an opportunity to look at the basic components of Hamas as found in its official website and its charter.

The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement.
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Hamas’s Charter (1988), available from The Avalon Project at Yale Law School.
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The Islamic Resistance Movement.
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The official website for Hamas, in Arabic.
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Secondary Sources

The manner in which Hamas operates is covered in Alshdaifat and Silverburg 2015. For historical background on the organization’s beginning and evolution, see Caridi and Teti 2012 and Hroub 2010. Hamas’s employment of violence as a means of its operation is covered in Davis 2016 and Levitt 2007. The connection to Islam is handled in Milton-Edwards and Farrell 2010. The group’s structural organization can be found in Mishal and Sela 2006 and Roy 2013.

Alshdaifat, Shadi, and Sanford R. Silverburg. “Islamic Hamas and Secular Fatah: How Does the Governing Process Work.” Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law 2.3 (July 2015): 583–649.
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A comparative analysis of the operation of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Fatah on the West Bank. The focus is on the manner in which Hamas attempts to govern in a competitive manner with Fatah.
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Caridi, Paola, and Andrea Teti, trans. Hamas: From Resistance to Government. New York: Seven Stories, 2012.
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What were the conditions that led to the rise of Hamas and the complex attitudes of Palestinians toward supporting a goal ready to employ violent resistance to the Israeli occupation? Shows the conflict among Palestinians between the desire to resist the occupation and provide support to the refugees.
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Davis, Richard. Hamas, Popular Support and War in the Middle East: Insurgency in the Holy Land. New York: Routledge, 2016.
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An empirical examination of Hamas’s use of violence in the Palestine-Israel conflict. A theoretical framework is provided to understand the dynamics between use and nonuse of violence under changing environmental conditions.
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Hroub, Khaled. Hamas: A Beginner’s Guide. 2d ed. London: Pluto, 2010.
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Describes the reasons for Hamas’s popularity, especially since the January 2006 Palestine election, the conflict with Fatah, and the 2008 Israeli attack on Palestinian-occupied Gaza.
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Levitt, Matthew. Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.
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A presentation from an extensive array of international intelligence materials showing the organization to be a unitary group committed to a militant Islamic ideology.
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Milton-Edwards, Beverly, and Stephen Farrell. Hamas: The Islamic Resistance Movement. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2010.
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After examining a host of source materials from Western intelligence agencies and interviews with leaders, militants, and commanders of Hamas’s armed battalions, the authors present their view of Hamas and political Islam in the Middle East.
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Mishal, Shaul, and Avraham Sela. The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence, and Coexistence. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.
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Argues that Hamas is a social and political organization providing extensive community services, responding to political realities through bargaining and power brokering.
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Roy, Sara M. Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.
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Looks at Hamas during the Oslo peace process, showing how the social service activities sponsored by the group maintains an emphasis on community development and civic restoration.
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Hezbollah

Hezbollah (The Party of God) as an active political actor in Lebanon, it is a strong organizational spokesperson for Shiite Muslims and a bitter militant opponent to Israel. Researchers have an opportunity to examine basic materials representing this group.

Original Sources

Original source links allow the researcher to examine firsthand the essential elements of this organization.

Hizbullah—the Party of God.
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Website with list of links to official websites and documents.
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Moqawama.
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The official website for Hezbollah, in Arabic.
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Secondary Sources

For a basic overview of Hezbollah, those interested should consult Dionigi 2014; Khatib, et al. 2014; Levitt 2015; Norton 2014; and Worrall, et al. 2015. In the context of how the organization operates within Lebanon, see Harris 2012 (cited under Lebanon). The organization’s use of violence is covered in Harik 2006. The group’s major external supporter is Iran, covered in Deeb, et al. 2013.

Deeb, Marius, Herbert Dwight, and Jane Dwight. Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah: The Unholy Alliance and Its War on Lebanon. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution, 2013.
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A product of the Working Group on Islamism and the International Order.
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Dionigi, Filippo. Hezbollah, Islamist Politics, and International Society. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
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Assesses the extent to which Islamic groups have been influenced by international social principles. An analysis of Lebanon’s Hezbollah finds that international norms are a significant factor changing Islamic politics.
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Harik, Judith Palmer. Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2006.
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An explanation of Hezbollah’s ideology and its relationship with other regional players.
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Khatib, Lina H., Dina Matar, and Atef Alshaer. The Hezbollah Phenomenon: Politics and Communication. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
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A scrutiny of Hezbollah’s image and identity along with an analysis of the movement’s communication strategy, political behavior, and performance. Emphasis is on how the organization has been able to manipulate its image.
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Levitt, Matthew. Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2015.
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A look at Hezbollah’s covert activities in Lebanon, including its financial and logistical support networks and its criminal and terrorist activities worldwide.
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Norton, Augustus Richard. Hezbollah: A Short History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014.
DOI: 10.1515/9781400851447Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An analysis of Hezbollah’s political performance in Lebanon, responses to the Arab Spring, and military support for the al-Assad regime in Syria.
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Worrall, James, Simon Mabon, and Gordon Clubb. Hezbollah: From Islamic Resistance to Government. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2015.
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A detailed analysis of the rise and evolution of Hezbollah from an Islamic resistance movement to a governing force in Lebanon. Explores the group’s impact on the security and power dynamics in the Middle East.
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ISIS

ISIS (The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria; known by the Arabic acronym Daesh, al-Dawla al-Islamiyya fil Iraq wa’al Sham; ISIL, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) is currently the most violent Islamic jihadist organization plaguing much of the Middle East, portions of Africa, and West Asia. Available to those interested is a wide variety of source material, original and secondary.

Original Sources

With al-Tamimi 2015, researchers have a source that reflects the basic inner workings of ISIS.

al-Tamimi, Aymenn Jawad. “The Evolution in Islamic State Administration: The Documentary Evidence.” Perspectives on Terrorism 9.4 (5 August 2015).
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The evolution of ISIS is documented from its establishment in Iraq in 2006 to the present. The material in the URL presents the growing sophistication of the organization’s governing structure.
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Secondary Sources

Basic historical background with a discussion of the group’s origin is covered in Atwan 2015, Cockburn 2015, Filiu 2015, Gerges 2016, McCants 2015, Warrick 2015, and Weiss and Hassan 2015. The employment of violent terrorism is brought out in Bennis 2015, Moubayed 2015, and Stern and Berger 2015. The group’s strategy is covered in Nance and Engel 2016.

Atwan, Abdel Bari. Islamic State: The Digital Caliphate. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 2015.
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Competently uses modern technology and information sources.
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Bennis, Phyllis. Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror: A Primer. Northampton, MA: Olive Branch, 2015.
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Clarifies how the Arab Spring popular uprisings and rebellions affected each country and how nonviolent movements morphed into religious and secular weaponized battles for control. There is an explanation why Sunnis attacked Sunnis in Iraq and how and why it all evolved into ISIS.
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Cockburn, Patrick. The Rise of the Islamic State: ISIS and the New Sunni Revolution. New York: Verso, 2015.
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Reprinted edition. A description of the events following the unraveling of US foreign policy. The argument is put forth that the West, by intervening in the Syrian civil war, created the conditions for the growth of ISIS. The United States and NATO underestimated the militants’ potential until too late and failed to act.
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Filiu, Jean-Pierre. From Deep State to Islamic State: The Arab Counter-Revolution and Its Jihadi Legacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
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Lays out the strategy and tactics used by Middle Eastern autocracies, especially in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Algeria, against jihadi sponsors in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan to create the democratic uprisings of the Arab Spring.
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Gerges, Fawaz A. ISIS: A History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016.
DOI: 10.1515/9781400880362Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A clear description of the origins of ISIS emerging from the chaos of the American invasion of Iraq, becoming stronger after the suppression of the opposition in the Arab Spring and the civil war in Syria. Discusses how ISIS took over the leadership of militant Islam from al-Qaeda. Looks at ISIS’s goal of recreating the Islamic caliphate.
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McCants, William Faizi. The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State. New York: St. Martin’s, 2015.
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Explores how religious fervor, strategic calculations, and a doomsday prophecy shaped the Islamic State’s past and sets out its future.
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Moubayed, Sami. Under the Black Flag: At the Frontier of the New Jihad. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2015.
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An inside account of the ISIS organization and how it forms the basis of the foundation for what is called for in the Islamic State.
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Nance, Michael, and Richard Engel. Defeating ISIS: Who They Are, How They Fight, What They Believe. New York: Skyhorse, 2016.
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A detailed description of ISIS along with a discussion of its leadership, the origin of the organization. An argument is put forth that ISIS’s appearance on the scene was caused by the US invasion of Iraq.
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Stern, Jessica, and John M. Berger. ISIS: The State of Terror. New York: Ecco, 2015.
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Sets out a model for violent extremism that ISIS has leveraged into a mass-killing organization in Iraq and Syria and with an international network.
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Warrick, Joby. Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS. New York: Doubleday, 2015.
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Shows how the character of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi combined with the mistakes of Presidents Bush and Obama led to the success of ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
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Weiss, Michael, and Hassan Hassan. ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. New York: Regan Arts, 2015.
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Describes how ISIS developed and its role in the conflict in Iraq and Syria. Included is a discussion of the political dynamics ongoing in both Iraq and Syria.
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Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (ITGC-QF) is a special operations unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, tasked with extraterritorial operations. Cordesman 2005 along with Smith 2011 provide a general explanation of the group. Amini 2011 gives a biographical sketch of one of its leaders. Levitt 2013 sets out the group’s operation in the region.

Amini, Keyvan. Imad Mughuiyeh Commander of Qods Force Operations Overseas. n.p.: Lulu Com, 2011.
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One of the leaders of this Iranian armed revolutionary group with a description of the organization’s activities in the 1980s and 1990s.
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Cordesman, Anthony H. Iran’s Developing Military Capabilities. Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2005.
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An assessment of Iran’s military abilities and use of its paramilitary assets.
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Levitt, Matthew. Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2013.
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Outlines the scope of the Qods Force, focusing on operational risks in a number of geographical areas, but looking closely at Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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Smith, Michael S., II. The al-Qa’ida-Qods Force Nexus: Scratching the Surface of a “Known Unknown”. n.p.: Kronos Advisory, 2011.
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A comprehensive analysis of the Qods Force and its role and function within the Iranian military structure as well as an examination of its organization.
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Jabhat Fatah al-Sham

Jabhat al-Nusra li-Ahl al-Sham (The Victorious Support Front for the People of al-Sham), later known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham; al Nusra Front is an insurgent, nonstate actor operating as a terrorist organization in Syria and Iraq. Founded by Abu Mohammad al-Golani and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2011, it declared itself operational in January 2012. As a transnational group, it operates as well in Lebanon.

Original Sources

For basic organizational documentation, most available material can be found in al-Tamimi 2015a and al-Tamimi 2015b.

al-Tamimi, Aymenn Jawad. Archive of Jabhad al-Nusra Dar al-Qaḍa Documents, 2015a.
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In an attempt to demonstrate a more conciliatory tone, distinct from ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra has created the Dar al-Qaḍa, designed to assert its judicial jurisdiction in those areas it controls. This archive, documented and updated, is found in the provided URL.
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al-Tamimi, Aymenn Jawad. Archive of Jabhad al-Nusra Service Documents, 2015b.
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The Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra has a Public Administration for Services. This archive, which is updated with the provided URL, provides relevant documents.
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Secondary Sources

A basic guide to this group is found in Benotman and Blake 2013 with a discussion of its organizational structure in Cafarella 2014. The group’s ideology is the subject of Charles River Editors 2016, and a discussion on how it has been able to evolve is in Gartenstein-Ross and al-Tamimi 2015.

Benotman, Noman, and Roisin Blake. Jabhat al-Nusra: A Strategic Briefing. London: Quilliam Foundation, 2013.
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A description of the Syrian jihadist group fighting the al-Assad Ba’athist regime. Available online through subscription.
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Cafarella, Jennifer. Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria: An Islamic Emirate for al-Qaeda. Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of War, 2014.
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A description of the organization and operational details of Jabat al-Nusra and how the group is a threat to the United States.
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Charles River Editors. The al-Nusra Front: The History of the Syrian Rebel Group Formerly Affiliated with al-Qaeda. Colorado Springs, CO: CreateSpace, 2016.
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An explanation is provided on the group’s ideology and differences with ISIS.
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Gartenstein-Ross, Daveed, and Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi. “Druze Clues: Al-Nusra’s Reframing and What It Means for Syria.” Foreign Affairs (5 October 2015).
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A discussion how al-Nusra has been able to create an image favored by regional governments that it is a moderate Islamist force.
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Khorasan Group

Khorasan Group is a collection of extremists in a leadership council within al-Qaeda as an umbrella organization.

Glint, Michael. Khorasan: 50 Facts on the New Terror Group Taking Over ISIS in Syria & Iraq—ISIS/ISIL/al Qaeda. San Bernadino, CA: Conceptual Kings, 2014.
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Provides a synopsis of the Khorasan Group on what it could be and what its mission could be.
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Paulussen, Christophe, and Kingo Tibori Szabó. Testing the Validity of U.S. Self-Defence Arguments against the Khorasan Group in Syria. The Hague: International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 2014.
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An international legal approach to this terror group that operates in Syria.
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Phillips, James. The Rise of al-Qaeda’s Khorasan Group: What It Means for U.S. National Security. Washington, DC: Heritage Foundation, 2014.
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A threat assessment of an al-Qaeda entity and its implications for American security interests.
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The Gulf Region

The “Gulf Region” includes the body of water bordered on the north by Iran and Iraq and on the south by Saudi Arabia and a set of emirates. A controversy that immediately comes to the fore is the descriptive title of the water body, either the Persian or Arabian Gulf. Not only is the body of water a connector for oil producers but also for POL (petroleum, oil, lubricants) distribution as well as a nexus to the Arabian Gulf and international trade routes. A general discussion of the geostrategic region is set forth in Potter 2014a. For strategic concerns, turn to Foley 2010, Gause 2010, and Legrenzi 2015. The intensity of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia and the emirates is covered in Haseeb 2015, Potter 2014b, and Sharifi 2015. The important resource of fresh water is covered in Amery 2015.

Amery, Hussein A. Arab Water Security: Threats and Opportunities in the Gulf States. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781107326187Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An exploration of the national security implications for the Arab Gulf states’ reliance on desalination plants and their related infrastructure. A comprehensive discussion of current and future threats to the supply of fresh water and the vulnerability to natural disasters.
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Foley, Sean. The Arab Gulf States: Beyond Oil and Islam. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2010.
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Identifies forces that can disrupt the status quo of the Persian Gulf, the telecommunications revolution, lack of jobs, the increasing role of women and minority groups. Points out that Gulf States must learn how to deal with modernity.
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Gause, F. Gregory, III. The International Relations of the Persian Gulf. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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A comparative account of the international politics in the Persian Gulf for four decades beginning in 1977. Focus is on the transnational identity issues, regime security, and the politics of the world oil market.
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Haseeb, Khair El-Din, ed. Arab-Iranian Relations. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2015.
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Regionally based Arab and Iranian scholars, in the context of the historical and cultural past, examine the preoccupation of the economic, political, educational, and strategic presence of the Arab-Iranian rivalry. A wide range of issues is covered.
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Legrenzi, Matteo. The GCC and the International Relations of the Gulf: Diplomacy, Security and Economic Coordination in a Changing Middle East. London: I. B. Tauris, 2015.
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Reprinted edition. An explanation for the mechanisms of Gulf cooperation and its limitations in the context of economic, global, diplomatic regionalization, and the rise of Iran.
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Potter, Lawrence G., ed. The Persian Gulf in Modern Times: People, Ports, and History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014a.
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An exploration of the historiography, ports, and peoples of the Persian Gulf over the past two centuries. There is an examination of the historical evolution of the Persian Gulf to include a comparative analysis of the condition of the region from the past to the present.
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Potter, Lawrence G., ed. Sectarian Politics in the Persian Gulf. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014b.
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Examination of sectarian politics in the Persian Gulf, including the Gulf Cooperation Council states, Yemen, Iran, and Iraq. Looks at the origins and consequences of sectarianism as it affects ethnic, tribal, and religious groups.
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Sharifi, Farzad Cyrus. Arab-Iranian Rivalry in the Persian Gulf: Territorial Disputes and the Balance of Power in the Middle East. London: I. B. Tauris, 2015.
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The author scrutinizes the Arab-Iranian claims to Bahrain, the Shatt al-Arab waterway, and the Abu Musa and Tunbs islands during the period of post–World War II to the Iranian revolution.
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Iran and the Gulf

Iran is the most littoral state in terms of shoreline length. It is also the most powerful state to the north of the waterway’s major choke point, the Strait of Hormuz. Iran also takes on singular importance if for no other reason than the waterway’s title. Iran, as a regional superpower, maintains as a strategic interest as much influence and control over naval passage in the Gulf as diplomacy can affect. It would be good to begin with Bosworth 1997; then turn to Gause 2010 for the international relations component; and Amiri and Ku Samsu 2011, Mabon 2015, and Sharifi-Yazdi 2015 for an analysis of the two regional powers’ interaction. Potter 2014a (cited under Gulf Region) provides overall coverage. Focusing on Iran is Brennan 2008 while on Saudi Arabia is Gray 2014.

Amiri, Reza Ekhtiari, and Ku Hasnita Ku Samsu. “Security Cooperation of Iran and Saudi Arabia.” International Journal of Business and Social Science 2.16 (September 2011).
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A discussion of the security cooperation agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia formulated in 2001. There is also coverage of economic cooperation between the two countries.
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Bosworth, C. Edmund. “The Nomenclature of the Persian Gulf.” Iranian Studies 30.1–2 (Winter–Spring 1997): 77–94.
DOI: 10.1080/00210869708701860Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author points out the earliest reference to the Persian Gulf is found in records from the Sumerian rulers of Mesopotamia in the third millennium BCE. The development of the specific reference then follows trade routes and merchants and the policies of the region’s rulers.
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Brennan, John. “The Conundrum of Iran: Strengthening Moderates without Acquiescing to Belligerence.” Annals 618 (July 2008): 168–179.
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US-Iranian relations have been characterized by antagonistic rhetoric and diplomatic estrangement. In order to bring about a thaw in the relationship, the United States must create a policy that will engage with Iranian moderates without showing any tolerance for Tehran’s support for terrorist groups or their activities. The proposed strategy requires sensitivity and patience for the nuances of Iranian domestic politics and recognizes Iranian security interests in the region.
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Gause, F. Gregory, III. The International Relations of the Persian Gulf. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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A comparative account of the international politics in the Persian Gulf for four decades beginning in 1977. Focus is on the transnational identity issues, regime security, and the politics of the world oil market.
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Gray, Matthew. Global Security Watch: Saudi Arabia. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International, 2014.
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Analyzes Saudi Arabian modern history, the role of Islam, and nature of Saudi foreign relations and how these factors shape the country’s security policies.
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Mabon, Simon. Saudi Arabia and Iran: Soft Power Rivalry in the Middle East. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2015.
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An examination of the different identity groups in Saudi Arabia and Iran; religious, ethnic, and tribal groups; and their relative impact on internal security, leading to ideological competition between the two countries.
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Sharifi-Yazdi, Farzad Cyrus. Arab-Iranian Rivalry in the Persian Gulf: Territorial Disputes and the Balance of Power in the Middle East. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2015.
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An investigation of previously unexamined primary sources combined with interviews focuses on the evolution and dynamics of hegemonic and nationalistic Arab-Iranian rivalries, finding a symbolic expression in territorial disputes. The conflict, it is argued, began in the post–World War II period.
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Saudi Arabia and the Gulf

Saudi Arabia is the dominant political and military power on the peninsula. Because of its geopolitical position and its religious service as the protector of Sunni Islamic shrines, it is the primary rival to Shia Iran to the north. A basic source with which to begin would be al-Saud 2004. For a discussion on the Saudi-Iranian rivalry in the region, look at al-Shihabi 2015, Chubin and Tripp 2014, Keynoush 2016, Mabon 2016, and Maisel and Shoup 2009. To understand what drives Saudi Arabia and its policies, see Valentine 2015.

al-Saud, Faisal ibn Salman. Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf: Power Politics in Transition. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
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Examines how Iran has increased its efforts to reorder the Gulf’s political landscape. Calls for an emphasis on local concerns and how regional powers have been influenced by the policies of external states.
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al-Shihabi, Ali. The Saudi Kingdom: Between the Jihadi Hammer and the Iranian Anvil. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 2015.
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Analysis of the domestic and regional challenges facing the kingdom. Possible impact on governments’ control of oil revenues is explained.
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Chubin, Shahram, and Charles Tripp. Iran-Saudi Arabia Relations and Regional Order: Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Balance of Power in the Gulf. New York: Routledge, 2014.
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Argues that both countries have an incentive to test the artificial balance established by the United States and from which they have been excluded. Each state may find the lure of weapons of mass destruction increased.
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Keynoush, Banafsheh. Saudi Arabia and Iran: Friends or Foes? New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
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Based upon extensive archival materials, a new approach is taken to explain the relationship between the two states, away from a US-centric approach to one on how either state views the other.
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Mabon, Simon. Saudi Arabia and Iran: Power and Rivalry in the Middle East. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2016.
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There is an examination of various identity groups in both countries, including religious, ethnic, and tribal, creating internal insecurities that have an impact on an ideological and geostrategic competition.
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Maisel, Sebastian, and John A. Shoup III. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab States Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Arab States. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2009.
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Describes individual states in the region with a prolific array of major cities and regions. Explanation is given to key public figures, institutions, major events, and political and state structures.
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Valentine, Simon Rose. Force and Fanaticism: Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia and Beyond. London: C. Hurst, 2015.
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Defines Wahhabism and its beliefs, considering the life and teaching of Muhammad ibn Abd’al Wahhab and the expansion of his sect. Discusses the rejection of ideas developed in Islam such as bid’ah and the establishment of Wahhabi law and the connection of Wahhabism with militant Islam globally.
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Arab-Israeli Conflict

The Arab-Israeli conflict has, perhaps, the most continuously prominent conflicted event in modern Middle Eastern history. The related literature can easily fill a moderately sized library. Three basic reference works on the Arab-Israeli conflict would be Roberts 2017, Gilbert 2012, and Kumaraswamy 2016. Underlying themes are described in Avidar 2015, with an understanding of Palestine found in Pappé 2006 and Pearlman 2014. A historical perspective is covered in Caplan 2009, Cohen 2015, and Fraser 2015. An emerging and important political actor, the Europeans, is found in Persson 2015.

Avidar, Eli. The Abyss: Bridging the Divide between Israel and the Arab World. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
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What are the issues that divide Israel from its Arab neighbors? Explains why the main diplomatic initiatives have failed to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Reveals the dynamics of unique and complex diplomacy in the Middle East.
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Caplan, Neil. The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
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An introductory presentation of the historical overview of the issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
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Cohen, Hillel. Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2015.
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The violent outburst between Arabs and Jews in mandated Palestine between 23 August and 1 September 1929, argues the author through his memory and historiography that this set of events marks the beginning the infamous Arab-Israeli conflict.
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Fraser, Thomas G. The Arab-Israeli Conflict. 4th ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
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A basic account of the Arab-Israeli conflict with US attempts to provide a peace settlement and the John Kerry initiative in 2013–2014.
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Gilbert, Martin. The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. New York: Routledge, 2012.
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Traces the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict from the early 20th century to the early 21st century. Included are 227 maps.
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Kumaraswamy, P. R. Historical Dictionary of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. 2d ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
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Covers the chronological history of the Arab-Israeli conflict with an extensive bibliography and over six hundred cross-referenced entries of important events, key personalities, and UN pacific efforts.
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Pappé, Ilan. The History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples. 2d ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511992728Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A standard history of Palestine from the Ottoman period through the British Mandate, the establishment of Israel in 1948, and subsequent conflicts up through the turbulent 1990s and the Oslo peace process. The failure of Oslo is discussed and how the separation barrier affects the lives of Palestinians.
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Pearlman, Wendy. Violence, Nonviolence, and the Palestinian National Movement. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
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Within a comparative political perspective, the author examines the pattern of incentives to employ violence within a fractured political movement. The argument is put forth that there is weak leadership that has failed to curtail violent extremism.
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Persson, Anders. The EU and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1971–2013. London: Lexington Books, 2015.
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Europe has made a difference in the diplomatic efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. The European Union has legitimized new ideas, which in turn has altered the foreign policies of other interested parties. As a result, Palestinians have made visible strides in gaining international support for independent statehood. European peacemakers employed links between security and the rule of law resulting in an observable need for a state with economic viability.
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Roberts, Priscilla. Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Documentary and Reference Guide. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2017.
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A thorough reference source for all relevant issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
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Peace Efforts

Attempts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict has been initiated by Israel the Palestine Authority, major world powers, and selected European states. Attempts to managing the Arab-Israeli conflict to some sort of a resolution have been described by many. Two comprehensive efforts have been Eisenberg and Caplan 2010 and Podeh 2015, with basic source material found in Rød-Larsen, et al. 2014. The Israeli position is, perhaps, discussed in Golan 2014, whereas a Palestinian voice is carried in Quray 2015 and Shehadeh 2015. Diplomatic efforts are set forth in Hirschfeld 2014 and Hussein 2015.

Eisenberg, Laura Zittrain, and Neil Caplan. Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities. 2d ed. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2010.
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Begins with 19th-century Arab-Jewish negotiations through President Obama’s version of a Middle East peace between Jews and Muslims. Includes a large bibliography and related documents.
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Golan, Galia. Israeli Peacemaking since 1967: Factors behind the Breakthroughs and Failures. New York: Routledge, 2014.
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Examines the Arab-Israeli conflict as intractable and attempts to determine what factors impact on Israeli peacemaking efforts.
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Hirschfeld, Yair. Track Two Diplomacy toward an Israeli-Palestinian Solution, 1978–2014. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center, 2014.
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An examination of some of the success stories in achieving a peaceful solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. A discussion of then-Israeli Shimon Peres and Jordanian King Husayn’s agreement, the “London Document,” and formulas associated with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Egyptian President Husni Mubarak in 1989, collectively the background to the Madrid Conference in 1991.
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Hussein, Cherine. The Re-emergence of the Single State Solution in Palestine-Israel: Countering an Illusion. New York: Routledge, 2015.
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An intellectual and organizational mapping of the single-state idea that has reemerged in the conflict. This condition is examined as a source of resistance as well as a counterhegemonic force against the processes of Zionism.
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Podeh, Elie. Chances for Peace: Missed Opportunities in the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2015.
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An analysis of the Israeli position on the Arab Peace Initiative adopted by the Arab League Summit in Beirut in 2002. Each Israeli government ever since has refused to recognize the Arab position, which remains on the books. By failing to recognize the Arab initiative, Israel has lost an important opportunity to resolve its conflict with the Palestinians.
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Quray, Ahmad. Peace Negotiations in Palestine: From the Second Intifada to the Roadmap. London: I. B. Tauris, 2015.
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Discussion of Palestinian politics from the second intifada, the process from the Aqaba Summit and after, Israel’s disengagement from Gaza with the Israeli attack on Gaza, and Palestinian elections.
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Rød-Larsen, Terje, Nur Laiq, and Fabrice Aidan, eds. The Search for Peace in the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Compendium of Documents and Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
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All relevant documents to the Arab-Israeli conflict from the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 along with specially prepared maps.
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Shehadeh, Raja. Language of War, Language of Peace: Palestine, Israel and the Search for Justice. London: Profile, 2015.
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An explanation of the language employed by Palestinians in the Arab-Israeli conflict reflecting the cultural and legal configuration of their posture. The argument is presented that the peace process has faltered by twisting the language displayed by the Palestinians.
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Israel and the Palestinians

At the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict is Israel as an established state and the Palestinians operating under the authority of the Palestine Authority and Fatah who are attempting to seek national self-determination. The primary actors in the Israel-Palestine conflict confronting each other begins with Attwell 2015 and is historically analyzed in Morris 1990. The interaction by both parties is covered in Wittes 2005. The tensions involved in the conflict comes out in Bregman 2015, O’Malley 2015, and Shlaim 2014.

Attwell, Katie. Jewish-Israeli National Identity and Dissidence: The Contradictions of Zionism and Resistance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
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Provides a perspective on identity of Israeli Jews’ management of their concerns for Palestinians. Explores how internal critics use alternative discourses of identity to reimage the Jewish Israeli national identity.
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Bregman, Ahron. Cursed Victory: A History of Israel and the Occupied Territories, 1967 to the Present. New York: Pegasus, 2015.
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A chronicle of how the initial plan of the Israelis for the Occupied Territories soured and failed diplomacy. Portrayal of key personalities and how back-door diplomacy affected the Palestinians.
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Morris, Benny. 1948 and After: Israel and the Palestinians. 2d ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1990.
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Focus is on Israeli decisions and reasons for the mass movement of Arabs from Palestine in 1948 out of the area. Addresses the transfer of Majdal’s Arabs to Gaza in 1950. Explores attitudes toward Palestinians from the 1948 war. Identifies the major parts of the controversy of the conflict between the “old” official histories and the “new” history of the 1980s and beyond.
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O’Malley, Padraig. The Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine—a Tale of Two Narratives. New York: Viking, 2015.
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How two people face each other with a self-image and the perspective of the other in a conflict posture.
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Shlaim, Avi. The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World. New York: Norton, 2014.
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A study through the prime ministerships from Barak to Netanyahu on Israel’s relationship with the Arab world—to include Palestine. There is a focus on the strategy of maintaining strength and the use of the separation wall to ensure a satisfactory negotiating position to employ with the Palestinians.
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Wittes, Tamara Cofman, ed. How Israelis and Palestinians Negotiate: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Oslo Peace Process. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2005.
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Examines why negotiations failed when the peace process appeared to succeed. A critical exploration of the impact of culture on the Oslo peace process.
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US Foreign Policy toward the Middle East/North Africa

The United States has been an active participant in Middle Eastern regional affairs throughout the 18th through the 21st century. In the early years, the connection was principally for Christian missionary and educative ventures, then a military mission followed, and later up to date by diplomatic and political interests. For a general background, see Gendzier 2015, Lesch and Haas 2014, Looney 2015, and Migdal 2014. Specifically dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict, there is Kurtzer and Lasensky 2012 and Rynhold 2015. For the Arab Spring, see Haas 2013. Congressional involvement in the foreign policy process is thoroughly handled in Beattie 2015.

Beattie, Kirk J. Congress and the Shaping of the Middle East. New York: Seven Stories, 2015.
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An assessment of Congress’s role in foreign policymaking by examining the melding of congressional candidates, campaign financing, congressional staffing, and bipartisan alliances within the Senate and House, focusing on agenda-driven allocation of foreign aid and policymaking. Shows how Congress really operates.
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Gendzier, Irene L. Dying to Forget: Oil, Power, Palestine and the Foundations of U.S. Policy in the Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015.
DOI: 10.7312/gend15288Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The argument put forth is that American foreign policy toward Palestine in the post–World War II era was dominated by the country’s interest in and demand for oil. Arab oil-producing states’ policies favoring Palestinian rights to a homeland had a profound effect on decision makers in the State and Defense Departments.
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Haas, Mark L. The United States and the Arab Spring: Threats and Opportunities in a Revolutionary Era. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2013.
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Explores the major political consequences of the Arab Spring and how US leaders responded to the developments.
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Kurtzer, Daniel C., and Scott B. Lasensky. The Peace Puzzle: America’s Quest for Arab-Israel Peace, 1989–2011. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012.
DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9780801451478.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Provides a comprehensive and objective depiction of American attempts to achieve a lasting peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
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Lesch, David W., and Mark L. Haas, eds. The Middle East and the United States: History, Politics, and Ideologies. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2014.
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Provides an objective cross-cultural of US policy toward the Middle East. The updated version includes a discussion of the Arab Spring and its impact on US interactions with the region.
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Looney, Robert E. ed. Handbook of US–Middle East Relations: Formative Factors and Regional Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2015.
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Thirty-five essays examine United States–Middle East relations from a variety of disciplines and perspectives.
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Migdal, Joel S. Shifting Sands: The United States and the Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.
DOI: 10.7312/migd16672Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Focus on the approach that US officials adopted toward the Middle East after World War II. Shows that insufficient attention was paid to key transformations that led to missteps and misconceptions in the 20th century. It is argued that the United States has an opportunity to create a more workable strategy.
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Rynhold, Jonathan. The Arab-Israeli Conflict in American Political Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
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Surveys discourse and opinion in the United States toward the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1991. Demonstrates that US support for Israel is based on deeply rooted American political culture.
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US-Iran

In recent years, Iran’s attempt to acquire a nuclear power capability, following a conflict with neighboring Iraq and its covert support for extremist Islamic elements in Lebanon and Gaza, has raised serious concerns for American foreign policymakers. US-Iranian relations can easily focus on two important events or issues, the 1979 revolution and Iran’s nuclear energy ambitions. On the latter, the original source material provided is invaluable. With regard to the former, first see Alvandi 2014, Mann 2005, Pollack 2005, and Wright 2010 (all cited under US-Iran: Secondary Sources). Specifically on US covert involvement in Iranian domestic politics, look to Abrahamian 2015, de Save 2015, and Gasiorowski and Byrne 2004 (all cited under US-Iran: Secondary Sources). For general discussion, see Hook and Niblock 2015, Pollack 2005, and Wright 2010 (all cited under US-Iran: Secondary Sources).

Original Sources

Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as agreed to in Vienna on 14 July 2015, a.k.a. the Iran deal, is an executive agreement in which the United States was included along with the P-5 + 1 (Five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council [China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States] plus Germany).

Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015. Public Law, 114–17, 129 Stat 201, 114th Congress, 22 May 2015.
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An official text of the agreement between the United States and Iran dealing with the latter’s nuclear energy program.
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The Iran Nuclear Deal: What You Need to Know About the JCPOA.
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A talking-points sheet from the White House on US policy toward the Iranian nuclear agreement.
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Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
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An official document stating the European Union’s position on the Iranian nuclear agreement.
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Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
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An official full text of the agreement. The Annexes begin on page 8.
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Joint Plan of Action, Vienna, 14 July 2015.
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A procedural description on how the Iranian nuclear agreement is to work.
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Ku, Julian. “State Department Confirms that Senators Rubio and Cotton Were Right, Professors Ackerman and Golove Were Wrong.” Opinio Juris (2 December 2015).
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An international legal analysis of the Iranian nuclear deal.
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Obama, Barack Hussein, II. “The Historic Deal That Would Prevent Iran from Acquiring a Nuclear Weapon: How the U.S. and the International Community Will Block All of Iran’s Pathways to a Nuclear Weapon.”
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Presented on 5 August 2015. An official presidential statement and perspective on the Iranian nuclear weapons development program.
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US Department of State. Background Briefing on the JCPOA Implementation, 17 September 2015.
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Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as agreed to in Vienna on 14 July 2015, a.k.a. the Iran Ideal. An executive agreement in which the United States was included along with the P-5 + 1 (Five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council [China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United State] plus Germany).
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Secondary Sources

Modern US-Iranian relations begin with a covert attempt to unseat an Iranian leader not amenable to American interests, covered well in Abrahamian 2015, de Save 2015, Gasiorowski and Byrne 2004, and somewhat less in Pollack 2005. American relations with the former Shah during the Cold War is examined in Alvandi 2014. A more general treatment of relations is covered in Hook and Niblock 2015 and Mann 2005, with current coverage in Wright 2010.

Abrahamian, Ervand. The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations. New York: New Press, 2015.
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Reprinted edition. A well-documented account, supported by relevant documentation on the 1953 CIA-orchestrated overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected leader and the installment of Mohammad Reza Shah in his place.
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Alvandi, Roham. Nixon, Kissinger and the Shah: The United States and Iran in the Cold War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199375691.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A revisited account of the Iranian shah’s relation with the United States. The author shows that the shah was an autonomous international actor and that Iran evolved from a client to a partner with the United States under the Nixon Doctrine.
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de Save, Mike. Operation Ajax: The Story of the CIA Coup That Remade the Middle East. New York: Verso, 2015.
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The story of the CIA coup that removed democratically elected Mohammed Mosaddeq and reinstated the monarchy of Reza Shah Pahlavi.
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Gasiorowski, Mark J., and Malcolm Byrne, eds. Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2004.
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One of the earliest attempts by the United States in the post–World War II era at “regime change,” working with the opposition to the liberal parliamentary of Mohammad Mosaddeq and ultimately bringing it down, replacing it with the Shah and his military. The book grew out of two conferences, the first in 2000 in Tehran and the second in 2002 at Saint Antony’s College in Oxford.
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Hook, Steven W., and Tim Niblock, eds. The United States and the Gulf: Strategies, Commitments and Alignments. Berlin: Gerlach, 2015.
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A history of Iran’s relations with the West and the estimation of what might be the political, human, and financial cost of a full-scale war with Iran.
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Mann, Michael. Incoherent Empire. London: Verso, 2005.
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Argues that American policy toward Iran has been militaristic rather than imperial in nature. The overwhelming military, economic, social, and political power ability of the United States only increases world disorder.
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Pollack, Kenneth M. The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict between Iran and America. New York: A. Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, 2005.
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An examination of the behind-the-scenes of the relationship between Iran and the United States, beginning with the fall of the shah and the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran in 1979, the US tilt toward Iraq during the war with Iran, the Iran-Contra scandal, and American-Iranian military tensions in 1987–1988.
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Wright, Robin, ed. The Iran Primer: Power, Politics, and US Policy. Washington, DC: Institute of Peace, 2010.
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Fifty articles on governing institutions, the opposition, the military, the nuclear controversy, international sanctions, and the economy. Covers relations from the Carter presidency to the Obama administration and other major world powers.
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US-Iraq

Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the belief by the West that it has a store of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) led to an American invasion and temporary occupation of the country and regime change. The contentious and conflicted relationship that the United States has had with Iraq as well as focusing on the invasion and occupation of the country with background is Ahmad 2014. Preliminary economic measures taken by the United States can be found in Gordon 2010 and afterward in Klein 2005. Violent conflict is described in Haass 2010, the results in Herring and Rangwala 2006, and its coverage by the media in Massing 2005 and McCarthy 2006.

Ahmad, Muhammad Idrees. The Road to Iraq: The Making of a Neoconservative War. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014.
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Argues that a small but ideologically coherent and socially cohesive group of determined political agents used the contingency of 9/11 to overwhelm a foreign policy establishment, military brass, and the intelligence community to go war in Iraq.
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Gordon, Jay. Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
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Examination of the key role of the United States when it shaped sanctions based upon American definitions of “dual use” and “weapons of mass destruction.” Details how the United States prevented critical humanitarian goods from going to Iraq and undermined attempts at reform.
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Haass, Richard N. War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.
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A guide for US policymakers on lessons learned from two Iraqi wars to avoid the failures of the past. Argues that Afghanistan has become a war of choice.
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Herring, Eric, and Glen Rangwala. Iraq in Fragments: The Occupation and Its Legacy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.
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Argues that state building in Iraq became a US attempt to control the process of state building but has had limited success. The nature of American state building has created incentives for unregulated local power struggles and patron-client relations.
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Klein, Naomi. No War: America’s Real Business in Iraq. London: Gibson Square, 2005.
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An argument that the United States planned to sell off Iraq’s national assets in the postwar period. Power was to place future generations of Iraqis in a position of indenture.
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Massing, Michael. Now They Tell Us: The American Press and Iraq. New York: New York Review of Books, 2005.
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A description of the American press coverage of the war in Iraq. A combination of self-censorship, lack of real information given by the military in briefings, “boosterism,” and small numbers of reporters fluent in Arabic or familiar with Iraq deprived the American public of reliable information while the war was going on.
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McCarthy, Rory. Nobody Told Us We Are Defeated: Stories from the New Iraq. London: Chatto and Windus, 2006.
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Covers the perceived disconnect between reporting by the American media and conditions of life from the perspective of local Iraqis.
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US-Israel

The United States has had a long-term “special relationship” with Israel since its founding in 1948. The basis for the bilateral condition has been the subject of debate and controversy. Israel’s “special relationship” with the United States is best handled in Ross 2015 and Oren 2015, and as an ally, Bass 2003. Oppositional voices to the relationship can be all covered in Ball and Ball 1992 and Mearsheimer and Walt 2008, and Weir 2014 for the origins of the state. Periods of friendship is found in Bass 2003, while the basis for favorable contacts is the basis in Stephens 2006, and Oren 2015 for the most current period. Congressional support and involvement is found in Cavari and Nyer 2014.

Ball, George W., and Douglas B. Ball. The Passionate Attachment: America’s Involvement with Israel. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992.
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Traces the sequence of events that brought the United States in a relationship with Israel and considers the financial cost of American aid to Israel.
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Bass, Warren. Support Any Friend: Kennedy’s Middle East and the Making of US-Israeli Alliance. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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Shows how Kennedy’s New Frontiersmen handled Middle East issues. Explanation is given that Nasser spurned American initiatives, and as the administration stumbled into the Middle East, Israel prescribed to the Kennedy administration to arm Israel. Discusses Kennedy’s showdown with Israel’s Ben-Gurion over its secret nuclear reactor.
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Cavari, Amnon, and Elan Nyer. “From Bipartisanship to Dysergia: Trends in Congressional Actions Toward Israel.” Israel Studies 19.3 (Fall 2014): 1–28.
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US Congressional support for Israel has been bipartisan and exceptional in the area of foreign policy. Congressional action toward Israel from 1973 to 2014 is documented to include all bills and resolutions directly involving Israel.
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Mearsheimer, John J., and Stephen M. Walt. The Israeli Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.
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A study of the impact of the Israeli lobby on US foreign policy. The exceptional relationship is largely due to the political influence of a loose coalition of individuals and organizations that work to shape American foreign policy favorable toward Israel.
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Oren, Michael B. Ally: My Journey across the American-Israeli Divide. New York: Random House, 2015.
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A memoir of the author’s time as Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2013. Discusses meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama and summits with Palestinians.
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Ross, Dennis. Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015.
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A civil servant at senior levels for more than thirty years, the author was directly involved in shaping US policy toward the Middle East and Israel. Talks about US-Israeli relations from the Truman through the Obama administrations. Shows how the relations between the United States and Israel oscillated over time.
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Stephens, Elizabeth. US Policy Toward Israel: The Role of Political Culture in Defining “Special Relationship.” Portland, OR: Sussex Academic, 2006.
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The author makes the argument that America’s strong and unswerving support for Israel is rooted in the country’s political culture. The author surveys four American administrations from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush. She focuses much of her argument on institutional actors such as lobbies (i.e., American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC) that influence foreign policy decision makers.
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Weir, Alison. Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel. Charleston, NC: CreateSpace, 2014.
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Comments on how US politicians pushed American efforts to assist in the creation of Israel in 1948 over the forceful objection of top diplomatic and military experts.
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US–Saudi Arabia

With the development of combustion engine–driven naval vessels in the early part of the 20th century, combined with a proposed multi-ocean presence, and the discovery of oil in the Arabian Peninsula, a strong business-like and business-based relationship developed between the United States and Saudi Arabia. The close geostrategic position taken by the United States toward Saudi Arabia is well covered in Citino 2002 and Lippman 2004.

Citino, Nathan J. From Arab Nationalism to OPEC: Eisenhower, King Sa’ud and the Making of US-Saudi Relations. Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 2002.
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The author charts the evolution of American foreign policy toward Saudi Arabia, beginning with the Eisenhower administration. The clear focus is on the post–World War II petroleum order and how the Americans replaced the British as the regional defender. There is considerable criticism of the Eisenhower’s approach to Saudi Arabia, favoring private American oil concerns while simultaneously working with Great Britain on economic partnerships to rebuild Europe in the postwar era.
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Lippman, Thomas. Inside the Mirage: America’s Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia. New York: Westview, 2004.
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An account of how companies and individual Americans managed their business and personal relationships in Saudi Arabia. The ARAMCO-Saudi link figures prominently and the al-Kharj agricultural project and other joint ventures are covered.
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Country and Regional Studies

A review of the more important states in the region is important in order to keep abreast with the relevant literature. The citations found under each country, or in the case of the European Union (EU), are basic and substantive for any further research in that state’s involvement in and with the Middle East.

Egypt

Revolution-wracked Egypt has had a great deal of internal turmoil with which to deal in the current era, socially examined in Abdelrahman 2004, with a sociological analysis of Egypt’s labor class in Beinin 2015, and violent political unrest as understood in Albrecht 2013 and Iskandar 2013. Political leadership under the authoritarian governance of Hosni Mubarak is set out in Amin 2012. For a survey of historical events, there is Goldschmidt 2013, and Tignor 2011 for a general history. Sabry 2015 surveys political issues dealing with activities in the Sinai Peninsula.

Abdelrahman, Maha M. Civil Society Exposed: The Politics of NGOs in Egypt. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
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An examination of the concept of civil society’s relation to social and political change and the role its agents, nongovernmental organizations, play in promoting emancipatory projects. Analyzes the empirical case of Egyptian “civil society” as the way to social and political transformation.
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Albrecht, Holger. Raging against the Machine: Political Opposition under Authoritarianism in Egypt. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2013.
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An explanation why political opposition emerges and persists over a protracted period of time in an autocracy over thirty years. Looks at the world of opposition in Egypt.
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Amin, Galal. Egypt in the Era of Hosni Mubarak. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2012.
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The focus is on the era of President Mubarak, looking at corruption, poverty, the middle class, and the economy. Also covered is the uneasy relationship between the Mubarak regime and the Egyptian press.
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Beinin, Joel. Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015.
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Surveys the effects and impacts of the workers’ movement in Egypt and Tunisia since the 1970s. Argues that the 2011 uprisings in these countries should be understood by the repeated mobilization of workers and unemployed over several decades.
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Goldschmidt, Arthur Eduard, Jr. Historical Dictionary of Egypt. 4th ed. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2013.
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Focus is on people and places, in 20th and 21st century Egyptian history.
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Hopkins, Nicholas S., ed. The Political Economy of the New Egyptian Republic. Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press, 2015.
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A collection of essays looking at social and political changes following Egypt’s 2011 revolution.
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Iskandar, Adel. Egypt in Flux: Essays on an Unfinished Revolution. Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press, 2013.
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A collection of twenty-four essays from August 2010 to April 2013 on the social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions in the revolutionary climate in Egypt.
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Sabry, Mohannad. Sinai: Egypt’s Linchpin, Gaza’s Lifeline, Israel’s Nightmare. Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press, 2015.
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Looks at the Sinai as a source of political intrigue to include jihadist militancy, economic exclusion by the central government, and high levels of corruption in the administration of the peninsula.
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Tignor, Robert L. Egypt: A Short History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011.
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A concise narrative of Egypt’s history from the beginnings of human settlement in the Nile River valley five thousand years ago to the early 21st century. Covers all major eras of the country’s ancient, modern, and current history.
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European Union (EU)

Europe has reemerged in recent years as an active political actor in the Middle East. The overall role of the continent in regional affairs is surveyed in Behr and Tiilikainen 2015. On the Arab-Israeli conflict, there is del Sarto 2015, Gordon and Pardo 2015a, Persson 2015, and Voltolini 2015. Pardo 2015 looks at the continent’s relationship with Israel. On Europe’s approach to the Arab Spring, there is van Hüllen 2015.

Behr, Timo, and Teija Tiilikainen, eds. Northern Europe and the Making of EU’s Mediterranean and Middle East Policies: Normative Leaders or Passive Bystanders? Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2015.
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Considers the impact of intra-European divisions on European policies toward the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Northern European states have been forced to adopt a more proactive policy toward the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
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del Sarto, Rafaella A., ed. Fragmented Borders, Interdependence and External Relations: The Israel-Palestine-European Union Triangle. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
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Investigation of the relations between Israel, the Palestine territories, and the European Union. Factors considered are security cooperation, the movement of people, trade relations, information and telecommunications technology, and legal borders.
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Gordon, Neve, and Sharon Pardo. “Normative Power Europe Meets the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Asia Europe Journal 13.3 (September 2015a): 265–274.
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Examines the EU’s norm position toward the Israel-Palestine conflict. The EU has a unified position different from its economic one hindering some form of conditionality, a method of maintaining EU as a unified actor.
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Gordon, Neve, and Sharon Pardo. “The European Union and Israel’s Occupation: Using Technical Customs Rules as Instruments of Foreign Policy.” Middle East Journal 69.1 (Winter 2015b): 74–90.
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A description of the rules of origin between the EU and Israel, presenting the argument that technical custom rules are instruments of foreign policy. Custom rules have become a legal precedent to legitimize actions against Israel’s occupation.
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Pardo, Sharon. Normative Power Europe Meets Israel: Perceptions and Realities. Lanham, MD, and Boulder, CO: Lexington Books, 2015.
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Analyzes Israelis’ perceptions toward “Normative Power Europe,” the EU, and NATO.
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Persson, Anders. The EU and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1971–2013. London: Lexington Books, 2015.
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Europe has made a difference in the diplomatic efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. The EU has legitimized new ideas, which in turn has altered the foreign policies of other interested parties. As a result, Palestinians have made visible strides in gaining international support for independent statehood. European peacemakers employed links between security and the rule of law resulting in an observable need for a state with economic viability.
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van Hüllen, Vera. EU Democracy Promotion and the Arab Spring: International Cooperation and Authoritarianism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
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A critical review of the practice and effect of international democratic promotion efforts as compared to authoritarian regimes behavior. The argument puts forth the notion that the same factors facilitate cooperation of authoritarian regimes and their persistence during the Arab Spring.
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Voltolini, Benedetta. Lobbying in EU Foreign Policy Making: The Case of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. London: Routledge, 2015.
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Examines lobbying in EU foreign policymaking and the activities of nonstate actors, focusing on EU policy toward the Israel-Palestine conflict and EU’s role in the peace process.
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Israel

A democratically stable Middle Eastern state, it is also at the core of conflict and a model of modernization. In an attempt to break out of the isolation the country faces surrounded by a hostile Arab world is a situation described in Alpher 2015. The state’s leadership is handled in Avner 2010, Ephron 2015, Gordis 2014, Shapira 2014, and Shilon 2016. The ongoing conflict with neighboring Palestinians is treated in Azoulay and Ophir 2012. Changes in Israeli culture is discussed in Gavriely-Nuri 2014. A general approach to Israeli government is Mahler 2016, and historical data and evidence is in Reich and Goldberg 2016, Shapira 2015, and Shavit 2015.

Alpher, Yossi. Periphery: Israel’s Search for Middle East Allies. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
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An examination of Israel’s strategy to geographically and politically outflank the hostile Sunni Arab Middle East core. The “periphery doctrine” became the major element of Israel’s grand strategy.
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Avner, Yehuda. The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership. New Milford, CT: Toby, 2010.
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An insider’s account of Israeli politics from its founding to the early 21st century. Details military operations, high-level negotiations, and how these decisions were made.
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Azoulay, Ariella, and Adi Ophir. The One-State Condition. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2012.
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An outline of the one-state condition of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the principle, the author argues, that the Israeli government employs with differentiated rule over the Palestinians with differing status and an active denial of Palestinian citizenship and civil rights.
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Ephron, Dan. Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel. New York: W. W. Norton, 2015.
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Describes how Rabin embraced Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Arafat, leading to extremists on the Left and Right to undermine the peace process. Reconstructs how Rabin’s assassin stalked him for months and how Israeli security failed to protect him.
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Gavriely-Nuri, Dalia. Israeli Culture on the Way to the Yom Kippur War. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2014.
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A discussion of Israeli culture between the 1967 and 1973 wars played a significant role in creating a surprise in the country’s national security establishment.
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Gordis, Daniel. Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel’s Soul. New York: Schocken, 2014.
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A biography of a polarizing Israeli leader that was an important figure in Israel’s fight for survival.
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Mahler, Gregory S. Politics and Government in Israel: The Maturation of a Modern State. 3d ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
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Traces the history of the state, covering the religious, social, economic, and military aspects of Israeli politics. Looks at the Israeli attorney general’s office, the relationship between Judaism and politics in Israel, events in the peace process, and the settlements in the Occupied Territories.
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Reich, Bernard, and David H. Goldberg. Historical Dictionary of Israel. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
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A chronology supplemented by an extensive bibliography with entries covering the major political, military, and diplomatic personalities; important institutions; events; and documents that set out the Jewish state.
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Shapira, Anita. Ben Gurion: Father of Modern Israel. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.
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A biography of a complex figure who helped found Israel, emphasizing his persona qualities that helped define his life.
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Shapira, Anita. Israel: A History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2015.
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A chronological and authoritative history of Israel, covering the emergence of Zionism and the early pioneering settlements in Palestine, the period of the British Mandate, and the creation of a modern state.
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Shavit, Ari. My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. New York: Spiegel Grau, 2015.
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Reissued edition. An examination of the complexities and contradictions of Israeli history. A personal odyssey covering the Zionist experience and the plight of the Palestinians.
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Shilon, Avi. Ben Gurion: His Later Years in the Political Wilderness. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
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A story of Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister from the time he stepped down from office in 1963 and political life in 1970 until his passing in 1973. Based upon his personal archives and interviews.
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Jordan

The artificially created desert kingdom, the population half of which is Palestinian and the rest native Bedouin and other ethnic groups, are considered to be an important, potential and stable provider in the area. For a basic understanding of the country, there is Antoun 2014, the work of a long-time observer. The role of Islam in the country’s political dynamics is in Atzori 2015 and Harmsen 2008. Economics in Jordan is covered in Khader and Badran 2015. The upsurge in political activism in the kingdom is examined in Larzillière 2015.

Antoun, Richard T. Muslim Preacher in the Modern World: A Jordanian Case Study in Comparative Perspective. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014.
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Documents the most important institution for the propagation of Islam, the Friday congregational sermon delivered in the mosque by the Muslim preacher. Demonstrates the scope of the Islamic programs in Jordan.
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Atzori, Daniel. Islamism and Globalisation in Jordan: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Quest for Hegemony. London and New York: Routledge, 2015.
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An exploration of the activities of the Muslim Brothers in Jordan. Discusses how the Brothers work to establish an alternative social, political, and moral order through a network of Islamic institutions contributing to a transformation of Jordanian society. Globalization is influencing Jordanian cultural society in the Arab world, though modified by the adoption of an Islamic framework.
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Harmsen, Egbert. Islam, Civil Society and Social Work: Muslim Voluntary Welfare Associations in Jordan between Patronage and Empowerment. Leiden, The Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press, 2008.
DOI: 10.5117/9789053569955Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A study of Muslim voluntary welfare associations in Jordan, based on the theory of civil society with special attention to the role of religious faith and their social activities.
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Khader, Bichara, and Adnan Badran, eds. The Economic Development of Jordan. London and New York: Routledge, 2015.
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Analysis of the structural changes in Jordan’s economy and the experience of key sectors. Looks at contributions of foreign- and migrant-worker remittances.
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Larzillière, Pénélope. Activism in Jordan. London: Zed Books, 2015.
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Charts the burst of democratic activism in Jordan to show how operations have shifted from underground movements to closely controlled public spheres.
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Lebanon

The perennial struggle between secularism and tradition characterizes the divisive politics of this unique country in the Arab world, which has been tormented by internal divisions and civil war. Harris 2012 provides a comprehensively historic overview focusing on sectarian rivalries, the destabilizing effects of which are the subject of Rougier 2015. Hirst 2011 concentrates on the era between the end of Ottoman rule and the ascension of Hizbollah, and Traboulsi 2012 on the contemporary period. Khalaf 2012 addresses how war has affected everyday life, while Klaushofer 2010 and Llewellyn 2010 offer a sociological commentary on the current state of affairs. Young 2010 discussed the country’s failed attempts at democratization.

Harris, William. Lebanon: A History, 600–2011. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
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Narrates the history of sectarian communities on Mount Lebanon and its surroundings. Traces the consolidation of Lebanon’s Christian-, Muslim-, and Islamic-derived sects from their origins between the 6th and 11th centuries.
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Hirst, David. Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East. London: Faber & Faber, 2011.
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A history of Lebanon from Ottoman rule to Hezbollah and Hamas. The argument is made that only the Obama administration can take the necessary action to prevent the expansion of the conflict environment.
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Khalaf, Samir. Lebanon Adrift: From Battleground to Playground. London: Saqi, 2012.
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Explores how ordinary citizens affected by war, regional rivalries, and economic deprivation find meaning and coherence in a society that has lost meaning and control.
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Klaushofer, Alex. Paradise Divided: A Portrait of Lebanon. London: Signal, 2010.
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An examination of the country’s fault lines and clearly the attempts to rebuild a fragile peace. Reveals a richly textured social and religious fabric of Lebanon’s special form of coexistence.
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Llewellyn, Tim. Spirit of the Phoenix: Beirut and the Story of Lebanon. Chicago: Chicago Review, 2010.
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Traces the history of the diverse populations of Lebanon. Introduces the country’s fractious politics based upon the different cultures.
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Rougier, Bernard. The Sunni Tragedy in the Middle East: Northern Lebanon from al-Qaeda to ISIS. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015.
DOI: 10.1515/9781400873579Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An examination of sectarian organization employing violence that tends to destabilize the entire state.
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Traboulsi, Fawwaz. A History of Modern Lebanon. 2d ed. London: Pluto, 2012.
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Weaves Lebanon’s social, political, and economic history. Notes that a new chapter in life in Lebanon begins in 1990.
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Young, Michael. The Ghosts of Martyr’s Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.
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Reprinted edition. Describes the rise and fall of the attempt to create democracy in Lebanon between 2005 and 2009. Argues that Lebanon’s eighteen ethnoreligious groups leave no single group in power.
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Russia

As witnessed by recent events, Russia, which has traditionally occupied an important role in Middle East affairs, stands to play an even larger one, simply by its physical presence in the region. Russian strategic interests and involvement in regional disputes such as the civil war in Syria have stoked the flames. The chapter on “Russia and the Middle East” in Carter and Anoushiravan 2013 and Magen 2013 provide overviews. The work of a former prime minister, Primakov 2009 offers personal insights on Russia’s involvement in the region. Articles in Souleimanov and Petrtylova 2015 and Oskasson and Yetiv 2013 address, respectively, Russian support for Syria in the context of the war against the Islamic State and Russian interests in the Persian Gulf. Nizameddin 2014 and Parker 2015 discuss changes in Middle East policy under Vladimir Putin. Delanoë 2015 considers how Russia’s support for the Kurds fighting ISIS has affected its relations with Turkey, Syria, and Iran, which oppose Kurdish separatism.

Carter, Hannah, and Ehteshami Anoushiravan, eds. The Middle East’s Relations with Asia and Russia. London: Routledge, 2013.
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Considers the most significant geopolitical, economic, and security links between the Middle East and Asia, to include Russia.
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Delanoë, Igor. The Kurds: A Chanel of Russian Influence in the Middle East? Paris: Institute Français des Relations Internationales, 2015.
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The Kurds have become a more credible fighting force against ISIS. Russia has been able to balance its interest with the Kurds without harming its relationship with neighboring states.
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Magen, Zvi. Russia and the Middle East: Policy Challenges. Tel Aviv: Institute for National Security Studies, 2013.
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A discussion of Russian involvement in the Middle East. Noted the fact the Middle Eastern states are consumers of Russia’s security exports, it seeks to contain the spread of radical Islam, and Russia seeks to maintain its standing internationally. Russia also serves as a competitor to the presence of the United States in the region.
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Nizameddin, Talal. Putin’s New Order in the Middle East. London: Hurst, 2014.
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Charts the conversion in Russian Middle East policy that developed in 2005–2006 as Putin became more authoritarian.
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Oskasson, Katarina, and Steve A. Yetiv. “Russia and the Persian Gulf: Trade, Energy, and Interdependence.” Middle East Journal 67.3 (Summer 2013): 381–403.
DOI: 10.3751/67.3.13Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines Russia’s trade and energy policies in the Persian Gulf. Russia’s profile in the Persian Gulf is rising in the post–Cold War era.
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Parker, John W. Understanding Putin through a Middle Eastern Looking Glass. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 2015.
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Four factors have led to a resurgence of Russian power and in the Middle East: Russian reaction to the Western campaign against Libya, Putin’s opposition to the US policy toward the Middle East, Israeli and American threats toward Iranian nuclear ambitions, and Saudi activism against the al-Assad regime in Syria.
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Primakov, Yevgeny. Russia and the Arabs: Behind the Scenes in the Middle East from the Cold War to the Present. New York: Basic Books, 2009.
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Part memoir, party history of the past half century from the perspective of a high-ranking Russian politician. Shows how the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars developed and Russia’s role in the 1991 Gulf War. Assesses Russia’s foreign policy toward the Middle East.
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Souleimanov, Emil Aslan, and Katarina Petrtylova. “Russia’s Policy Toward the Islamic State.” Middle East Policy 22.3 (Fall 2015): 66–78.
DOI: 10.1111/mepo.12144Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Russia has provided tangible support for the al-Assad regime in Syria, but Iranian nuclear ambitions and Saudi activism against the al-Assad government presents a perceived threat to Russia’s North Caucasus. Strong anti-Western views are expressed by Russian elites.
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Saudi Arabia

With its abundant oil resources, Saudi Arabia has played a critical geopolitical role in the region and continues to do so. Al-Rasheed 2002 is among the best critical interpretations of Saudi history. It is complemented by Haykel, et al. 2015, which focuses on the contemporary period. Aarts and Roelants 2015 examines the internal threats to the regime. Vassiliev 2016 provides a biography of the country’s most influential leader, King Faisal. The all-important role of Saudi society, that is, Wahhabism (looked at in Valentine 2015), is treated in Commins 2016 and Ismail 2016. Matthiesen 2014 focuses on the internal dissent and intercommunal confrontations. Menoret 2014 looks at the underlying social issues faced by the established government. Qasem 2015 explains how the country’s oil wealth has shaped its security policies.

Aarts, Paul, and Carolien Roelants. Saudi Arabia: A Kingdom in Peril. London: Hurst, 2015.
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A somewhat polemical tract highlighting what appears to be a set of established rules and regulations intended to blunt the influence of Western values.
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al-Rasheed, Madawi. A History of Saudi Arabia. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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A history of the kingdom from the period of the emirates in the 19th century through the 20th century based on the concept of state building, from the beginning of the kingdom in 1932, covering the Gulf War in 1990 to date.
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Commins, David. The Mission and the Kingdom: Wahhabi Power behind the Saudi Throne. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2016.
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Examines the nature of Wahhabism and its rise in Saudi Arabia and then its expansion into other areas of the Muslim world. Looks at the challenge brought about by radical elements within Saudi Arabia, their threat to the region, and the rise of ISIS.
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Haykel, Bernard, Thomas Hegghammer, and Stéphane Lacroix, eds. Saudi Arabia in Transition: Insights on Social, Political, Economic and Religious Change. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
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The focus is on various aspects of Saudi society and how over time, the changes in the region and globe have affected each sector. A great deal of archival research is provided to detail the social, economic, and political dynamics ongoing in the kingdom.
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Ismail, Raihan. Saudi Clerics and Shi’a Islam. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190233310.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An examination of the thought and rhetoric of the Saudi ulama (religious council) on Shiism and Shi’a communities with an accompanying analysis of their sermons, lectures, publications, and religious rulings. Sets out an argument that the ulama is persuaded not only by their theological positions regarding Shiism but also by politics involving the Shi’a within the kingdom and abroad.
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Matthiesen, Toby. The Other Saudis: Shiism, Dissent and Sectarianism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781107337732Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Describes how the authoritarian position of the Saudi Sunni elite has marginalized the Shiite population in the eastern portion of the kingdom. A great deal of detail is provided on the lives of two million Shias whose interpretation of Islam is held with mistrust by the dominant Wahhabi clerics, but whose beliefs are very well covered.
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Menoret, Pascal. Joyriding in Riyadh: Oil, Urbanism, and Road Revolt. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139548946Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Here is a story of how the younger Saudi generation, influenced by Western values, confront the strict Islamic social structure by engaging in a homoerotic practice of parading down Riyadh’s streets in their vehicles, known as car drifting. There is also a focus on the management of public space.
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Qasem, Islam Yasin. Oil and Security Policies: Saudi Arabia, 1950–2012. Boston: Brill, 2015.
DOI: 10.1163/9789004277731Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines how oil resources have shaped Saudi Arabian security policies since the mid-20th century. A study clearly of oil politics and the interrelationship between economic interdependence and national security.
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Valentine, Simon Ross. Force and Fanaticism: Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia and Beyond. London: Hurst, 2015.
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The author clearly focuses on the extent of the religious power exercised by Wahhabi clerics, while secular delights remain in easy sight. There is a thorough analysis of Wahhabism.
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Vassiliev, Alexei. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia: Personality, Faith and Times. London: Saqi, 2016.
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A biography of a Saudi Arabian leader who was pious and pragmatic, steering the kingdom through a great deal of domestic problems, inter-Arab relations, and the decline of Soviet influence in the region. He also continuously sought high levels of cooperation with the United States.
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Turkey

A parliamentary democracy and the most Western-oriented and secular state in the Muslim world, Turkey is important because of its strategic location, linking Europe with the Middle East and controlling the Bosphorus Straits. Turkey has historically assumed a pivotal role in the geopolitics of the area, dramatized by recent developments both internally and externally, including an attempted coup to unseat the government of Recep Erogan. Although not a part of the Middle East proper—perhaps Near East—Turkey is an important player in the politics of the region. Ahmad 2014 and Dismorr 2008 both provide an excellent introduction to the country. A complete history can be found in Stone 2014, while Öktem 2011 concentrates on the contemporary period. Fuller 2014 assesses how Turkey has been influenced by the Arab Spring. Controversial issues such as the Turkish massacre of Armenians and treatment of the ethnic Kurds are handled in Ekmekcioglu 2016 and Simpson 2013.

Ahmad, Feroz. Turkey: The Quest for Identity. Rev. ed. London: Oneworld, 2014.
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An easy access reference volume to Turkey’s modern history. A concise but comprehensive history.
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Aras, Ramazan. The Formation of Kurdishness in Turkey: Political Violence, Fear and Pain. London and New York, Routledge, 2014.
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Examines political violence, the politics of fear, and the Kurdish experience of pain through an analysis of live stories, personal narratives, and testimonies of Kurdish subjects in contemporary Turkey. Traces the physical and psychological impacts of the war between Turkish security forces and the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party) guerrillas in the late 20th century in Kurdish populated areas in southeastern Turkey.
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Dismorr, Ann. Turkey Decoded. London: Saqi, 2008.
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An examination of the implications of Turkey’s affiliation with Europe and its role in the Middle East against the broader range of events, that is, the gap between the West and the Muslim world, terrorism, and the struggle for human rights and democratization.
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Ekmekcioglu, Lerna. Recovering Armenia: The Limits of Belonging in Post-Genocide Turkey. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2016.
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A study of the aftermath of the 1915 Armenian destruction and the fate of Armenians who remained in Turkey.
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Fuller, Graham E. Turkey and the Arab Spring: Leadership in the Middle East. Sqamish, Canada: Bozorg, 2014.
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Turkey offers the only real Muslim model of dynamic and effective governance. As a result of the Arab Spring, US geopolitical dominance in the Middle East has ended.
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Howard, Douglas A. The History of Turkey. 2d ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2016.
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A comprehensive overview of the history of Turkey from the period of Neolithic civilization to the establishment of the Republic in 1923 up to the present and the administration of President Erdoğan.
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Öktem, Kerem. Angry Nation: Turkey since 1989. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
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Charts the contemporary politics of Turkey by examining its erratic transformation from a military dictatorship to a troubled democracy.
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Simpson, Tony, ed. The Kurdish Question in Turkey. Nottingham, UK: Spokesman, 2013.
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Papers presented at the European Parliament in December 2012 in Brussels sponsored by the United European Left political group with support from Greens and Socialists.
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Stone, Norman. Turkey: A Short History. London: Thames & Hudson, 2014.
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Covers Turkey’s history from the arrival of the Seljuks in Anatolia in the 11th century to the modern era and the application for EU (European Union) membership in the 21st century.
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Yemen

The Houthi insurgency in Yemen seeking to topple the Saudi-supported government has become a full-scale civil war, adding to the list of internal disputes in the Middle East. A series of books published in the early 21st century seek to elucidate the situation. Lockner 2014 and Brehony and al-Sarhan 2015 provide the context for the current situation, while Boucek and Ottaway 2010, Brehony 2013, and Rabi 2015 examine the underlying causes for conflict. Dresch 1989 and Weir 2007 take an anthropological approach focusing on the country’s tribal social system, while Johnson 2012 treats the role of al-Qaeda.

Boucek, Christopher, and Marina Ottaway, eds. Yemen on the Brink. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2010.
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Analyses of the critical problems that have brought Yemen to governmental failure. Assesses Yemen’s major security challenges.
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Brehony, Noel. Yemen Divided: The Story of a Failed State in South Arabia. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2013.
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Reprinted edition. Discusses the birth of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. Explains the power politics that caused the formation of a communist republic and the process and conflicts that led to Yemeni unification in 1990.
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Brehony, Noel, and Saud al-Sarhan, eds. Rebuilding Yemen: Politics, Economics and Social Challenges. London and Berlin: Gerlach, 2015.
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Discusses the political and economic background and analysis of the most important issues facing Yemen.
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Dresch, Paul. Tribes, Government and History in Yemen. New York: Clarendon, 1989.
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A description of the tribal system and an examination of the values the tribal folk bring to international relations. Places the role of tribes in the world from the 10th to the 20th century.
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Johnson, Gregory D. The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda and America’s War in Arabia. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012.
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A comprehensive history of al-Qaeda in Yemen, beginning in the 1980s. Also covered are a number of terrorist genealogies.
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Lockner, Helen, ed. Why Yemen Matters: A Society in Transition. London: Saqi, 2014.
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Suggests solutions to Yemen’s most pressing challenges as it seeks an all-inclusive political and economic transition. Covered are political and regional issues, economic development, and society and migration.
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Rabi, Uzi. Yemen: Revolution, Civil War and Unification. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2015.
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A history covering Yemen’s 20th-century development from a traditional society to a melting pot of revolutions and foreign interventions. An analysis is provided of a failing state in terms of daily functions and the ability to offer security to its citizens.
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Weir, Shelagh. A Tribal Order: Politics and Law in the Mountains of Yemen. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007.
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A description of the politico-legal system of Jabal Razih, in northern Yemen, inhabited by farmers and traders. Based upon extended anthropological fieldwork and an examination of many handwritten contracts and treaties among and between the tribes and rulers of Razih.