The Heart of the Middle East, in terms of Arab culture and customs, is Saudi Arabia -- principal oil state and the West's most important Middle East ally. This book draws its inspiration and guidelines from the Saudi way of life, with due reference to the neighboring Arab states around the Persian Gulf, including Kuwait, Qatar and United Arab Emirates.

Whether you travel for business, pleasure, or a combination of the two, the ever-popular Culture Shock! series belongs in your backpack or briefcase. Get the nuts-and-bolts information you need to survive and thrive wherever you go. Culture Shock! country guides are easy-to-read, accurate, and entertaining crash courses in local customs and etiquette. Culture Shock! practical guides offer the inside information you need whether you're a student, a parent, a globetrotter, or a working traveler.Each Culture Shock! title is written by someone who's lived and worked in the country, and each is packed with practical, accurate, and enjoyable information to help you find your way and feel at home.

A guide to adapting and thriving within unfamiliar cultural settings challenges the notion that professional life interacts with culture only at the etiquette level, distinguishing between rule-based and relationship-based cultures while considering the roles of such factors as competition, security, and lifestyle. (Social Science)

Peters combines an authoritative text with his inimitable cartoons like no other author dealing with this subject today. The author of The Arab World Handbook proves once again to be an indispensable guide and companion for any visitor (on business or pleasure) to the fascinating and sometimes demanding land that is the Arab world. Split into two parts, Simple Etiquette in Arabia and The Customs and Culture of Arabia, James Peters extracts the common denominators of etiquette in the Gulf, as well as describing the essential first steps in understanding the place, the people and the culture.

With a population of 900,000,000, 100 different ethnic types and 15 recognized languages, it is surprising that India has remained a cohesive democracy. Yet now, not only is its economy advancing rapidly, it is attracting the attention of the outside world, which has in the past been all to ready to ignore India with its complex political and cultural problems. There will be much to surprise the visitor, not just the extremes of poverty in the major cities, but also the extent to which intensity of religious and social observance continues to be very much part of everyday life.

Barely half a century old and composed of immigrants from more than 80 countries, it is not surprising that native-born Israelis call themselves sabras - the name is given to the fruit of the Prickly Pear cactus - and that Israel is a land of contrasts, paradoxes and unpredictability. But, says the author, the Prickly Pear may be very offputting from the outside, but is delicious inside. It is worth persevering. The author, himself an immigrant in Jerusalem, gives the reader a sharply-focused insider's view of the way of life in modern Israel. He notes that the impetuosity, idealism, and supreme self-confidence characteristic of the early years (and often extremely unpleasant for the outside world) have given way to the much more relaxed and realistic approach of a maturing society, although the prickly image is still very much part of government life and state media. Other stereotypes are also faced head-on, such as the kibbutz culture (today, less than 4% of Israelis live on kibbutzim) and the military culture.