Armies of Sand

Armies of Sand seeks to answer the question, 'why have Arab armed forces fared so poorly in battle since the Second World War?' It explores four different explanations that scholars, soldiers, and military experts have suggested: Soviet doctrine, politicization, underdevelopment, and culture. To do so, it looks at the performance of over two-dozen Arab militaries from 1948 to 2017, and compares them to a half-dozen non-Arab militaries, to conclude thatpolitics, economics, and culture all contribute to the past weakness of Arab armies. It concludes by addressing circumstances in which Arab military fortunes may shift as both warfare and their societies change.

Kenneth Pollack has been an expert on Middle Eastern military and political affairs for over 30 years. A longtime Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution, where he ran the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, he is currently a Resident Scholar of the American Enterprise Institute. His other books on the political and military of the Middle East include the bestsellers The Threatening Storm and The Persian Puzzle.