Joshua Teitelbaum evaluates Saudi foreign policy in the Persian Gulf and in the Arab-Israeli peace process and provides a shrewd assessment of the Saudi-U.S. relationship. He debunks the traditional view of Saudi foreign policy that emphasizes the Saudi concern with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and explains how the true concern of Arabia's rulers is the ideological battle that has been opened up by Iran's push into Arab affairs.

The Middle East is undergoing an era of revolutionary change that is challenging the foreign policies of the United States and virtually all regional states. One of the most important rivalries defining the strategic landscape of the Middle East is between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The competition between these two states is long-standing, but is especially important now. This book examines how the successor presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has damaged relations in the Saudi-Iranian relationship along with the Saudi-led intervention into Bahrain.

Camille Pecastaing looks at the twenty-first-century challenges facing the region around the Bab el Mandeb-the tiny strait that separates the Red Sea from the Indian Ocean-from civil war, piracy, radical Islamism, terrorism and the real risk of environmental and economic failure on both sides of the strait. The author takes us with him into Somalia and Yemen, Eritrea and Djibouti, with excursions into Ethiopia and the Sudan, as he reveals how the economic and environmental crisis currently in gestation could lead to more social dislocation and violence in this strategically important region.

Lex Petrolea and International Investment Law: Law and Practice in the Persian Gulf offers readers a detailed analysis of jurisprudence on the settlement of upstream petroleum disputes between host states in the Persian Gulf and foreign investors. Dr Nima Mersadi Tabari considers the historical, political, and socio-economic roots of the existing frameworks and levels of protection offered to foreign investors. With particular focus on petroleum-related disputes, he initially delivers a comprehensive survey of the jurisprudence of international investment law and investment treaty arbitration. Following on from this, in three dedicated chapters, the author provides in-depth analysis of the legal regimes governing the matter in the major producers of the region: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran. A key resource for all professionals working on legal issues arising from foreign direct investments in natural resources, this book draws a detailed picture of the legal regime governing the upstream sector in the most important geographical region for the international oil and gas sector.

Fouad Ajami presents a firsthand look at the political culture in Saudi Arabia and its conduct and influence in foreign lands from the early 1990s to around 2010. From the influence of Islam in public life to Saudi rulers' attitudes toward the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, the author fills a significant gap in our understanding of that country.

This critical review of the history of America's relations with Iran shows how little of the two countries' long and complicated relationship is reflected in the foundational axioms of the "Great Satan" myth. The author explains why meaningful and equitable relations can begin only after the two nations have arrived at a common, critical, and accurate reading of the past.

Bernard Lewis looks at the new era in the Middle East. With the departure of imperial powers, the region must now, on its own, resolve the political, economic, cultural, and societal problems that prevent it from accomplishing the next stage in the advance of civilization. There is enough in the traditional culture of Islam on the one hand and the modern experience of the Muslim peoples on the other, he explains, to provide the basis for an advance toward freedom in the true sense of that word.