What really went wrong : the West and the failure of democracy in the Middle East / Fawaz A. Gerges.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gerges, Fawaz A., 1958- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Foreign relations--Middle East.

United States.

Middle East--Foreign relations--United States.

Middle East.

Physical Description:

xiv, 317 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2024]

Summary:

"An ambitious revisionist history of the modern Middle East, 'What Really Went Wrong' offers a fresh and incisive assessment of American foreign policy's impact on the history and politics of the modern Middle East. Looking at flashpoints in Iranian, Egyptian, Syrian, and Lebanese history, Fawaz A. Gerges shows how postwar U.S. leaders made a devil's pact with potentates, autocrats, and strongmen around the world. Washington sought to tame assertive nationalists and to protect repressive Middle Eastern regimes in return for compliance with American hegemonic designs and uninterrupted flows of cheap oil. The book takes a counterfactual approach, asking readers to consider how the political trajectories of these countries and, by extension, the entire region may have differed had U.S. foreign policy privileged the nationalist aspirations of patriotic and independent Middle Eastern leaders and people. Gerges argues that rather than focusing on rolling back communism, extracting oil, and pursuing interventionist and imperial policies in Iran, Egypt, and beyond, postwar U.S. leaders should have allowed the Middle East greater autonomy in charting its own political and economic development. In so doing, the contemporary Middle East may have had better prospects for stability, prosperity, peace, and democracy."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction. Narrating history

Mossadegh, Nasser, and what could have been

A portrait of Mossadegh

Saving Iran from democracy

From the cusp of democracy to the abyss of absolute monarchy

What did the overthrow of Mossadegh mean for Iran and the Middle East?

Nasser : the pan-Arab icon

Nasser in "Little Hollywood" : losing Egypt, losing the peace

The Suez crisis

Frustrating Nasser's Arab nationalism

What have Egypt and the Arab world lost by the defeat of Nasser's secular nationalism?

From Iran to Guatemala : the fabrication of a communist threat.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Gerges, Fawaz A., 1958- What really went wrong.

ISBN:

9780300259575

0300259573

OCLC:

1405842369