The United States And The Arab World

When in the Arab World is written from the inside for anyone who wants to live or work with Arab culture.

Neither stability nor change in the post-colonial Arab world can be fully understood without considering the international context, and American Foreign policy in particular. However, the exact nature of America’s presence in the Arab world, and the scope and modes of its influence, all appear to have reached a crossroads since the Arab uprisings. ‘US Hard Power in the Arab World’ traces the US’s "power of persuasion" in the Arab Middle East from the onset of the War on Terror in 2001 through to the Arab Spring. With a particular focus on Syria, the book explores the limits of an American "smart power" amid the emergence of a growing indigenous "soft power" whose ire is directed not only at Assad’s regime, but also at the violence perpetrated or enabled by the international community, headed by the US. It is argued that the blurring of the two forms of "soft" and "hard" American power has tarnished the credibility of US policies geared to win hearts and minds in the Arab world. ‘US Hard Power in the Arab World’ narrates the contests between attraction and intimidation, public diplomacy and military occupation, elites and publics, seduction and resistance. Drawing upon a multitude of primary sources, including personal interviews with Syrian activists and opposition figures, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Middle East Politics, as well as those concerned with American Foreign Policy and the Arab Spring.

Previously published by Pambazuka Press in 2012 under the title of 'The People's Spring: the Future of the Arab Revolution.' This edition contains a new chapter analyzing U.S. geo-strategy.

Comprehensive survey of the Arab world.

Born in 1945, the United Nations came to life in the Arab world. It was there that the UN dealt with early diplomatic challenges that helped shape its institutions such as peacekeeping and political mediation. It was also there that the UN found itself trapped in, and sometimes part of, confounding geopolitical tensions in key international conflicts in the Cold War and post–Cold War periods, such as hostilities between Palestine and Iraq and between Libya and Syria. Much has changed over the past seven decades, but what has not changed is the central role played by the UN. This book’s claim is that the UN is a constant site of struggle in the Arab world and equally that the Arab world serves as a location for the UN to define itself against the shifting politics of its age. Looking at the UN from the standpoint of the Arab world, this volume collects some of the finest scholars and practitioners writing about the potential and the problems of a UN that is framed by both the promises of its Charter and the contradictions of its member states. This is a landmark book—a close and informed study of the UN in the region that taught the organization how to do its many jobs.

"In few of its postwar policies has the United States been more ill at ease than in dealing with the Arab world...For two decades it has felt its way through the recurrent crises of the area, seldom entirely failing in its objectives, yet equally seldom quite reaching them. Bold initiative and sustained consistency have not been the hallmark of its approach." With these words John S. Badeau , who served as United States Ambassador to Egypt from 1961 to 1964, begins his reassessment of American policies in the Middle East. In setting forth the American approach to the area, Mr. Badeau carefully defines United States interests, primary and subsidiary. He evaluates the new forces of nationalism, non-alignment, and modernization in the Arab world, as well as national and personal rivalries, the tensions between the radical and conservative states, the residual onus of European colonialism, and the Soviet presence. In evaluating the instrumentalities and guidelines for the exercise of American foreign policy in the Middle East, Mr. Badeau also spells out the inevitable dilemmas that the United States must face. A case study of American diplomacy in Yemen illustrates both the opportunities for and the constraints on policy. He concludes that a reappraisal of United States policy in the area is in order, urging that our approach take into consideration not only our true interests and capabilities in the Middle East, but also the changing political realities of the Arab world.