Conflicts in the Middle East Since 1945.

• Author: Naseem, Muhammad Yaseen
• Position: Book review

Conflicts in the Middle East Since 1945

By Beverley Milton-Edwards and Peter Hinchcliffe

New York: Routledge, 2008, 158 pages, [pounds sterling]64.00, ISBN: 9780415440175

Conflicts in the Middle East Since 1945 outlines the key low and high intensity conflicts that occurred in the Middle East (ME) from 1947 to 2007. The content is oriented toward the diplomatic, political, religious, social and economic developments in the region. Its scope is very specific, and includes the internal, state-state, regional and global orientations of conflicts ranging from North African Algeria to Iran, the last corner of Middle Eastern country. The authors are conversant in the security and geo-political dynamics of the region, and the role of local (ideological actors within the state), regional (Arab, Israeli and Iranian) and international actors (Europe, the U.S., the former USSR and Russia). They provide a critical narration of the nodes of agreements and disagreements in key dialogues, peace processes, and understandings for ceasefires between parties of the conflicts in the Middle East, such as Arab-Israel, Egypt-Israel, Jordan-Israel, Lebanon-Israel, PLO-Israel, Iraq-Iran, Iraq-Kuwait, the Arab League etc. The language and vocabulary used in the book is comprehensive, cohesive and descriptive, and stocks a history of key relevant events in a very streamlined manner helping readers build a historical construct of the nature, scope and significance of a number of target conflicts in the Middle East. The authors draw upon Thomas Hobbes's theoretical concept of 'war of all against all' to explicate the phenomenon of unrest, conflicts and wars in the Middle East.

The book may be criticized for some ideological distortions, biasness and deficiencies in its content. First, the authors take a position by starting their book by mentioning a very radical statement (p. 8) made by General Moshe Dayan, ex-foreign, ex-defence minister and ex-Chief of General Staff of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), who unilaterally signified the national interest of Israel that ended with a declaration of war with Arabs through harnessing the Western component of Israeli identity for legitimizing its hard-core historical intervention through the invasion and occupation of Palestine. Second, although the authors acknowledge the fact that today's Middle Eastern borders were artificially designed by the colonial and imperial powers of the West (mostly Britain and France). They...