America’s Middle East

From the Gulf War to Gaza, a compelling critique of how and why Washington ensnared itself so destructively in the Middle East.As featured on the Ezra Klein Show‘Persuasively argues that the U.S. efforts to shape the Middle East have failed.’ — New Republic, ‘Book of the Week’ After Hamas' shocking 2023 attack on Israel, the United States stood firmly behind Israel's near-genocidal war on Gaza, despite widespread moral outrage and significant damage to Washington's global agenda. But Gaza is only the latest paradox in thirty-five years of Middle East policy. How did this pattern develop, why can't policymakers learn from repeated Middle Eastern calamities, and what does Gaza's destruction mean for America's place in the world?Marc Lynch charts the United States' disastrously failed approach to the post-Cold War Middle East, where aspirations for US leadership and a calm region have only produced war, instability and humanitarian catastrophe. Lynch exposes the failure of each president's efforts to transform the Middle East in America's image, or pivot away from the region; Washington's refusal to take seriously the views of Middle Easterners; and its fantasy of forging a regional order 'without' the Palestinian issue.Moving between American politics and Middle Eastern realities, this incisive account explains why US policy has not changed despite its horrifying human costs, from Iraq, Lebanon and Syria to Iran, Yemen and Libya.For readers wanting to know more about the complex history of American interventions in the Middle East, Professor Lynch is an experienced guide Analyses the role of both American domestic politics and the realities of the region on the ground in shaping strategy More pressing than ever with recent US interventions