The untold story of Western intelligence in the Middle East Have Western experts fundamentally failed to understand the dynamics, leaders and culture of the Middle East? Using the most recently declassified documents, interviews and Arabic sources, the book examines seminal case studies culminating in Sadats dramatic assassination and explores how the most knowledgeable and powerful intelligence agencies in the world have been so notoriously caught off guard in this region.

Is the Arab world an indispensible energy source without which our civilisation will come to a halt? Is this the cause of political and military meddling in the Arab world's affairs? This title examines fossil fuels in relation to alternative energy, and from a political perspective.

The Arab region has been and continues to be a focus of the world for its economic, political, and social importance. However, reality indicates that the performance of many Arab states in terms of education, literacy, health, employment, and welfare generally fall behind many countries of other regions. Strategic Thinking, Planning, and Management Practice in the Arab World is an essential reference source that investigates the status of current strategic practice in the Arab world as well as the need to promote awareness of effective development strategies. Featuring research on topics such as social justice, practical entrepreneurship, and crisis management, this book is ideally designed for high-caliber strategists, academic scholars, and postgraduate research students.

Europe and the Arab World is a wide-ranging assessment of the prospects for a new relationship between Europe and the Arab world in the coming years. Samir Amin and Ali El Kenz take as their starting point the significantly shifting balance of political forces within the various Arab countries, including the rise of both political Islam and civil society. They argue that the strategic global hegemony of the United States constitutes a major element affecting the Euro-Arab relationship. They then focus on the European Union initiative, originally launched in Barcelona, to put its relations with the Arab countries of the Mediterranean and Gulf regions on a new footing of equality and mutually beneficial cooperation. The authors provide a detailed empirical account of the initiative as well as an historically contextualized, intellectually critical and politically perceptive analysis of the various realities impacting on it. Samir Amin and Ali El Kenz conclude that, while considerable dialogue and even institution-building have taken place in order to give substance to this attempt to go beyond the colonial legacy of inequality and dependence, little of a concrete kind has been achieved in transforming the underlying economic and political relationships between the Arab Islamic and European Christian worlds of the Mediterranean. Among the many obstacles identified are the overriding and economically deleterious impact of globalized capitalism, and the determination of the United States to impose its own political objectives on the Middle East. The timeliness of this book's argument is highlighted by the new tensions that have accompanied the U.S. military occupation of Iraq and the Bush administration's political pretensions to 'bring democracy' to the whole region.

This brief memoir recounts the journey of a man and lessons he accumulated on leadership by observing and questioning the status quo, and asking the penultimate question of why, from his childhood home in the small island of Bahrain, to his formative years as a student and professional in England, to his adulthood as a business leader, philanthropist, influencer and family man. The book’s key observation is that there is an excess of rulership while leadership is almost always in deficit. The book questions how we can move from one to the other, which examples can we rely on in every sphere of our lives and how transformative more leadership would be.

This book examines the communist movement in the Arab world from the time of the Russian revolution until after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It traces the interaction of the world communist movement which was characterized by an uncritical acceptance of Marxism-Leninism, and local communists, who moved from initial dependence on Moscow to a position more adapted to local circumstances and sensitivities that could be characterized as a distinctive 'Arab communism'. It goes on to trace the impact of 'Arab communism' on a range of issues in the region, arguing that the role of Arab communist parties was highly significant, and disproportionate to the relatively small numbers of communists in the countries concerned.

Henry Azzam here examines the options for each Arab state and provides data on their individual economies, banking, stock and bond markets. He provides information on Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, presenting a detailed overview of their economic performance, fiscal and monetary policies and growth prospects.

The Arab World is a region that has been vastly misunderstood in the West. Arab Voices asks the questions, collects the answers, and shares the results that will help us see Arabs clearly. The book will bring into stark relief the myths, assumptions, and biases that hold us back from understanding this important people. Here, James Zogby debuts a brand new, comprehensive poll, bringing numbers to life so that we can base policy and perception on the real world, rather than on a conjured reality. Based on a new poll run by Zogby International exclusively for this book, some of the surprising results revealed include: * Despite the frustration with the peace process and the number of wars of the past few years, 74% of Arabs still support a two state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And over one-third of Lebanese, Saudis, and Jordanians think that their governments should do more to advance peace. * Despite wars in and around their region and the worldwide economic crisis, when asked "Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?" 42% of those polled say they are better off, 19% worse off. * Arabs like American people (59% favorable rating), values (52%) and products (69%), giving them all high ratings. And Canada gets high favorability ratings everywhere (an overall rating of 55% favorable and 32% unfavorable). * However, Arabs overwhelmingly rate American society "more violent and war-like" (77%) or "less respectful of the rights ofothers" (78%) than their own society. Why? Because of the Iraq war and continuing fallout from Abu Ghraib,Guantanamo, and the treatment of Arab and Muslim immigrants and visitors to the United States. * What type of TV show do Saudis and Egyptians prefer to watch? The answer is, "Movies", which draws over 50% of the first and second choice votes. In Morocco, the top rated shows are "soap operas" and music and entertainment programs, drawing almost two-thirds of the first and second choice votes. Religious programs are near the bottom of the list of viewer preferences, garnering less than 10% of votes in all three countries.

In the previous book "Fossil Fuels in the Arab World: Facts and Fiction", an assessment of mankind's dependence on fossil fuels was performed - particularly the position of Arab countries in this international industry. Several questions were posed then, identifying whether or not fossil fuel producing countries of the Arab world were an indispensable energy supplier and if the answer or beliefs around that question were behind Western policies towards the Arab world. In this book the questions posed 5 years ago from three perspectives: market fundamentals, understanding the fossil fuel market fundamentals and the place of the Arab world within that; political influences, corruption & cultural norms in business dealings, the developing democracy and militarisation in the Arab world and their interplay with oil and gas are addressed and finally, public relations, perceptions or concerns, where climate change and alternative energy questions are explored in detail.