The Book Review of “Perilous Power: The Middle East and US Foreign Policy”

Ahmadian, Hassan

The Book Review of “Perilous Power: The Middle East and US Foreign Policy”

Document Type : Research

Author

Hassan Ahmadian

Assistant Professor, Department of West Asian and North African Studies, University of Tehran

Abstract

Because of its importance and effectiveness, the United States’ strategy in the Middle East has attracted regional and international actor’s attention. Challenges stemming from the US regional priorities along with differences within the US political spectrum have promoted a variety of literature. A good part of that literature has dealt with US Middle East policy critically. Among those critical sources comes Perilous Power: The Middle East and US Foreign Policy. Scientific literature critical to US Middle East policy is more common in this region itself. However, books like Perilous Power, written based on aggregating regional and western views, in addition to explaining new dimensions of the subject, provide a comparative outlook which per se could have a comparative value as well. Perilous Power is a serious effort to bring up a comprehensive critical discussion on the US Middle East policy. In this article, it has been attempted to assess and review Perilous Power both in terms of its form and content, matching its main discussion with those present in the region.

Keywords

The Middle East

US Foreign Policy

Middle East Wars

US Strategy

Perilous Power

Subjects

political science

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