Since at least 2001, the Middle East has been the focal point of American foreign policy and military strategy. The shock of 9/11 brought the US and its allies first into Afghanistan and then, via grim momentum and fraught logic, into Iraq. But the United States has of course been engaged in the Middle East in one way or another continuously since the end of the Second World War, as have its Western partners and, indeed, Russia. The articles in this collection reflect this history: they are, in many ways, a record of the preoccupations of external actors who have shaped the region. On the other hand, they reflect, too, the deep divisions – and often the disorder – of the Middle East, its states, its non-state entities, and its people.
