The Tragedy of the Middle East

by Barry Rubin

The Middle East has changed clearly, substantially, and dramatically during the last decade. Yet scholarly and public understanding lags far behind recent events. Barry Rubin's historical and political summation of the region shows how events and ideas have both shaped and altered its character. Three interlinked themes are crucial to the book. First, a reinterpretation of the era of recent upheaval the Middle East has just passed through, which the author calls the Era of Radical Expectations. During that period, many Arabs believed that some leader, country, or radical movement would unite the region, solving all its problems. Second, an evaluation of how the historical experience of the period between the 1940s and the 1990s undermined the old system, making change necessary. Third, an analysis of the region today that explains future developments, in what the author terms the Era of Reluctant Pragmatism, as the Middle Eastern societies determine their relationships to the West. Barry Rubin is Director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herziliya, Israel, and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs. He is the author of 16 books on the Middle East and has edited another 17 that include the widely reviewed and acclaimed The Transformation of Palestinian Politics (Harvard, 1999) and The Israel-Arab Reader (Penguin/Putnam, 2002)

Genres: Middle East

287 pages, Paperback

First published September 2, 2002

About the author

Barry Rubin is an American-born Israeli expert on terrorism and Middle Eastern affairs.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA), and a professor at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel. He is also editor of the journal 'Turkish Studies'.

Reviews

[Dorian Santiago · Rating 3 out of 5]

More than anything, this read as grand indictment of the ruinous Arab regimes (and that of Iran) that have taken hold of the Middle East post-independence from the colonial powers that have relinquished control over the 20th century. Barry Rubin outlined the self-serving geopolitical apparatus of said regimes, which commonly and intensely destroys the social, economic, and global potential of the Middle Eastern region as a whole. He touched well on the redirection of domestic issues challenging the regimes as blame toward the foreign policy of external powers, the subversion of dissent within regimes, the exploitation of the Arab-Israeli conflict and Palestinian question and the blocking of reaching a treaty with Israel, the highly contentious appropriation of Islam and how it ties into Islamist insurgency and state affairs, and the propaganda-fueling system of the media and state that subverts the constantly shriveling intellectual blocks that seek to expand the the role of civil society.

In less than 300 pages, these were all expanded on fairly, but I did have one issue with the book: while it touched on the commonly disregarded self-restrained role that the U.S. has taken in its Middle Eastern foreign policy throughout the decades--especially from the end of the regimes' propaganda--it seemed to me that, in this matter, the author was trying to 'cover the sun with one finger,' as we say in Dominican Republic. He made it seem as if the U.S.' ventures in the region were simply protective of the vulnerable (particularly Israel) at its least and altruistic at its most. For example, the Bosnia and Kosovo situation was mentioned briefly three or four times throughout the book, seemingly lauding the U.S. was the main arbiter in protecting the Muslims in those locations and downplaying the limited and regrettable role that was taken part in it. The economic self-interest of the U.S., with the major importance of oil reserves in the region, also seemed to be dismissed when it is the primary reason that close relations with that part of the world are upheld. Evading that clause when discussing geopolitics in the region makes the argument much less cogent.

The title of the book is entirely appropriate--while reading it, I was constantly shaking my head and feeling downtrodden for the minorities in the region whose endeavors to invoke civil participation and democracy are silenced harshly. The powers that be continue imposing detriment on all the citizens of the region in order to continue serving and saving themselves, and they benefit from there being no peace, but no war at the same time. The cataclysm won't end in the foreseeable future without a great deal of revolutions and deaths, and as vital as it is to read about, it's just as demoralizing for anyone to face that reality, much less the people who are suffering there.