Obama and the Middle East

Published to widespread media acclaim, Fawaz Gerges's work takes on the past, present, and future of the United States' relationship with the Middle East. Gerges, one of the world's top Middle East scholars, examines the US–Middle East relationship Obama has inherited, analyzes the administration's responses to the challenges it has faced, and highlights what must change in order to improve US outcomes in the region. Evaluating the president's engagement with the Arab Spring, his decision to order the death of Osama bin Laden, his intervention in Libya, and his relations with Iran, Gerges reaches a sobering conclusion: the United States is near the end of its moment in the Middle East. The cynically realist policy it has employed since World War II—and that the Obama administration has continued—is at the root of current bitterness and mistrust, and it is time to remake American foreign policy.