From the First World War to the Arab Spring

Offering a comprehensive, up-to-date examination of the complex web of wars and proxy wars, revolutions and counter-revolutions that are ripping the Middle East apart, this book puts these events in their historical context and leads readers through the labyrinth that is the new Middle East. This book seeks answers to pressing, contentious questions. Why are there so many hereditary heads of state in the Middle East when the Prophet Muhammad did not appoint a successor? Why do Western countries claim to want democracy in the Middle East, yet support dictators? Why did Israel become a democracy while the Arab states did not? Why are there so many wars in the Middle East? And, most importantly, what happened to the hope and optimism of the Arab Spring? M.E. McMillan offers fresh answers to these difficult questions. Firmly grounded in historical research and insightful analysis of current events, this book gives readers a new understanding of what's really going on in the Middle East.

M. E. McMillan is author of Fathers and Sons: The Rise and Fall of Political Dynasty in the Middle East and the acclaimed The Meaning of Mecca: The Politics of Pilgrimage in Early Islam. She has worked as a translator for the United Nations in New York and Geneva.

Acknowledgements Notes on conventions Introduction Lost in the Labyrinth: What's Really Going on in the Middle East? PART I: THE TANGLED WEB: WHY THE GREAT POWERS OF EUROPE BECAME INVOLVED IN THE MIDDLE EAST 1. Sarajevo, Sunday, June 28, 1914 2. The British Empire and the Arab World: Ambition, Austerity and A Class Apart 3. The French Empire and the Arab World: From the Crusades to the Civilizing Mission 4. The Russian Empire and the Arab World: Religion, Rome and the New Rome 5. The German Empire and the Arab World: Family Feuds and Eastern Ambitions 6. The Ottoman Empire: How the Arab World Was Won and Lost PART II: TOO MANY STRAIGHT LINES ON THE MAP: WHERE, WHEN AND WHY IT STARTED TO GO WRONG 7. London, Tuesday, December 21, 1915 8. The Arab World Before the War: The Facts on the Ground 9. The Re-Making of the Middle East: Enter the Nation-State 10. From Sykes-Picot to the Treaty of Sèvres: Betrayals, Backstabbing and Broken Promises 11. The Poisoned Legacy and The War's Unanswered Questions PART III: ALL OR NOTHING: WHY ALL ROADS LEAD TO JERUSALEM 12. Where to Begin? 13. Jerusalem: The Temple Mount 14. Jerusalem: The Noble Sanctuary PART IV: KINGS, COLONELS AND COUPS: WHY THERE IS A DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT IN THE ARAB WORLD 15. Cairo, Wednesday, July 23, 1952 16. The Kings, the Colonels and the Political Time Warp: The Return of the Middle Ages 17. I am the State: Power, Politics and the Cult of Personality 18. The Problem of Absolute Power: From Stability to Stagnation PART V: THE SACRED VERSUS THE SECULAR: WHO SPEAKS FOR ISLAM? 19. Mecca, Tuesday, November 20, 1979 20. 1979: The View from Tehran 21. 1979: Holy War and Unholy Alliances 22. The Arab Spring and the Democratic Alternative Epilogue Untangling the Web: What Now? Select Bibliography Index