The upheaval in oil prices in the early 1970s gave rise to major changes in inter-Arab relations. While the oil-producing countries became rich and their citizens enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the world, the Arab World's cultural and historical leader, Egypt, was enmeshed in an economic morass, barely managing to finance the import of foodstuffs for her population and at the forefront of the Arab confrontation with Israel. The author provides a unique insight into a virtually unseen current that has shaped Middle East war and politics for over 30 years by explaining the intricate and ever shifting relationship between Egypt and the immensely wealthy Arab Gulf newcomers. The efforts of the Gulf states to exert political and cultural influence over Egypt through use of their oil revenues is described in detail, alongside concurrent Egyptian efforts to redistribute the oil wealth while maintaining complete policy independence and primacy. Drawing on previously unpublished reports, and on first-hand interviews with key persons throughout the region (including two Egyptian premiers), the book provides a first-time look at the full extent of the economic ties, at the inner workings of the relations, and at their long-term impact. New data and analysis shows the underlying logic and impact of this relationship, and the powerful interplay and the shifting balance of power. The book analyzes the effects economic aid and cooperation had on the political relationship between the two sides and on President Sadat's peace initiative with Israel. It provides a wealth of new data and original and insightful analysis, and fills an important gap in our understanding of the inner economic workings of the modern Arab world.

The Middle East is an area of great importance globally, yet misperceptions abound. Events have made it a region of special interest to the West and so the search for understanding gains momentum. This publication is intended to clarify the region’s complex history and issues. In developing this project, the contributors’ set out to explore seven significant themes that are usually not found in other sources. While many books focus on political history and conflicts, this two-volume work deals specifically with culture, religion, women, economics, governance, and media, as well as the role that the region’s modern history has played in shaping its society and worldview.

Egypt continues to be cultural and political beacon in the Middle East. Its control of the Suez Canal, cold peace with Israel, concern about Gaza, mediation and interest in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the marginalization of the Muslim Brotherhood are all points of significance. There is a close, and expanding, defence and security relationship between Egypt and the GCC states, most evident in the inclusion of Egypt in Saudi Arabia's new Sunni counter-terrorism alliance. The authors of this book contextualise historical linkages, and allies add to this the real postures (especially contentious relations with Qatar and Turkey) and study Egypt's strategic relations with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE in particular. The book's main argument derives from a complex web of political, socio-economic and military issues in a changing regional and international system. It states that the Egyptian regional policy under Sisi will generally remain consistent with existing parameters (such as broad counter-terrorism efforts, including against the Muslim brotherhood). There is strong evidence to support the idea that Cairo wishes to maintain a GCC-first policy.

Working into the middle class -- "Crisis of supply in every household" -- 'Provocative consumption' -- 'Parasites' -- The resurgence of middle-class Islam.

This book explores and problematises the war discourse regarding Egypt's victory in the 1973 War. It traces the process through which this discourse was constructed and reconstructed by the state throughout the periods of President Anwar Sadat, his successor Hosni Mubarak, and afterwards. It uses Critical Discourse Analysis to combine analysis of texts commemorating the war with a study of the socio-political milieu related to personal authoritarianism and the state’s intricate relations with the army, the press and Islamists.

This book concerns with the analysis of the impact of globalization on international migration from a distinct international political economy perspective. It confronts theoretical debates from the different international political economy (IPE) approaches and elaborates on the implications of different theories in policymaking and political realms. Here, migration is examined as an integral part of the global political economy that is structurally connected to the process of globalization, although the definition of globalization itself is a subject of enquiry.

In Oil Money, David M. Wight offers a new framework for understanding the course of Middle East–US relations during the 1970s and 1980s: the transformation of the US global empire by Middle East petrodollars. During these two decades, American, Arab, and Iranian elites reconstituted the primary role of the Middle East within the global system of US power from a supplier of cheap crude oil to a source of abundant petrodollars, the revenues earned from the export of oil. In the 1970s, the United States and allied monarchies, including the House of Pahlavi in Iran and the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia, utilized petrodollars to undertake myriad joint initiatives for mutual economic and geopolitical benefit. These petrodollar projects were often unprecedented in scope and included multibillion-dollar development projects, arms sales, purchases of US Treasury securities, and funds for the mujahedin in Afghanistan. Although petrodollar ties often augmented the power of the United States and its Middle East allies, Wight argues they also fostered economic disruptions and state-sponsored violence that drove many Americans, Arabs, and Iranians to resist Middle East–US interdependence, most dramatically during the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Deftly integrating diplomatic, transnational, economic, and cultural analysis, Wight utilizes extensive declassified records from the Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations, the IMF, the World Bank, Saddam Hussein's regime, and private collections to make plain the political economy of US power. Oil Money is an expansive yet judicious investigation of the wide-ranging and contradictory effects of petrodollars on Middle East–US relations and the geopolitics of globalization.