Challenges to Peace in the Middle East

By Dennis G. Stevens

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0205280633
• ISBN13: 9780205280636
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Longman Publishing Group
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.3" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

concise survey of trends

The book was written in 2002, shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Stevens refers to this in the introduction, to motivate why people (Americans in particular) should have a better understanding of the Middle East. He wrote that after the invasion of Afghanistan, and during a debate in the US Congress about a possible invasion of Iraq. Well, we know what happened in the subsequent years. If anything, his book is at least as relevant now as it was in 2002. Granted, it cannot make reference to events after 2002. But its value is in explaining long-rooted trends, in a concise manner. It does not do a country by country survey, as perhaps other texts on the region might. Instead, Stevens attempts to portray ideas and events that transcend a given country and impact its neighbours or even the entire region. Like Arab nationalism, partly in reaction to European colonialism. Or the rising Islamic fundamentalism. Or the enduring Arab-Israeli struggle. The book is a good introduction to its ideas. Readers still interested after reading it might now have enough background to delve into more specialised texts.