Efraim Karsh

The Iran-Iraq War, which ended in August 1988, one month short of its eighth anniversary, was one of the longest, bloodiest and costliest Third World armed conflicts in the twentieth century. Professor Karsh addresses the causes of the Iran-Iraq War, unpacking the objectives of the two belligerents and examining how far objectives were matched by strategy. He assesses the war's military lessons regarding such key areas as strategy, tactics and escalation and in particular the use of non-conventional weapons, Finally, he examines the utility of armed force as an instrument of foreign policy.

The Iran–Iraq War 1980–1988

The Zionist Movement was born in the wake of Jewish emancipation in Western Europe, and at a time of increased persecution in Eastern Europe. This volume addresses the intellectual, social and political ramifications of Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel before the creation of the State of Israel.

Israel: Israel's transition from community to state

Born amidst the ruin of the Second World War and into the Cold War environment of machtpolitik, Israel has since its earliest existence commanded a place on the international stage out of all relation to its size, population or ambitions. This volume examines Israel's experience in foreign affairs in its fifty years of statehood. Contributors ask to what extent an Israeli foreign policy can be said to be a Zionist foreign policy and analyse Israel's international role in the Cold War era.

Volume IV: Israel in the International Arena

Israel: The First Hundred Years

This Chatham House Paper examines the nature of Soviet relations with Syria, assessing the commitments made and the gains reaped by Moscow and Damascus in the economic, military and political spheres. After discussing Soviet interests in the region in general and with regard to Syria in particular, the author traces the evolution of the relationship between Moscow and its major Middle Eastern ally since Asad came to power in 1970. While the study argues that huge Soviet military aid has intensified the pro-Soviet alignment of Syrian policy, it contends that Asad’s perception of his country’s national interests has also played a large part in shaping the relationship. The author concludes that both sides have gained from what is an interdependent relationship. If Damascus remains almost wholly dependent on Soviet military aid, regional constraints give Syria some leverage over Moscow. Without Moscow’s support Syria might perhaps not have played such a leading role in the region; without Damascus the Soviet Union might have found itself on the sidelines of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Soviet Union and Syria (RLE Syria)

Israel: Israel in the international arena

The continuing crisis in Syria has raised a question mark over the common perception of Middle Eastern affairs as an offshoot of global power politics. To western intellectuals, foreign policy experts and politicians, 'empire' and 'imperialism' are categories that apply exclusively to the European powers and more recently to the United States of America. Lacking an internal dynamic of its own, the view of such people is that Middle Eastern history is the product of its unhappy interaction with the West. This is the basis of Obama's much ballyhooed 'new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world'. Efraim Karsh propounds in these pages a radically different interpretation of Middle Eastern experience. He argues that the Western view of Muslims and Arabs as hapless victims is absurd. On the contrary modern Middle Eastern history has been the culmination of long existing indigenous trends, passions and patterns of behaviour. Great power influences, however potent, have played a secondary role constituting neither the primary force behind the region's political development nor the main cause of its notorious volatility. Notwithstanding the Obama administration's abysmal failure to address the momentous Middle Eastern events of recent years, Karsh argues it is only when Middle Eastern people disown their victimization mentality and take responsibility for their actions and their western champions drop their condescending approach to Arabs and Muslims, that the region can at long last look forward to a real 'spring'.

International Politics and the Middle East

The Tail Wags the Dog

Benjamin Netanyahu's 1996 election victory marked a major turnaround in his fortunes, for only a few months earlier his political career had seemed finished. This book examines what his victory means both domestically and internationally.

Israel's Troubled Agenda

From Rabin to Netanyahu

Karsh contends that the influence of the Great Powers has not been the primary force behind the Middle East's political development, nor the main cause of its famous volatility.

Rethinking the Middle East

Inari Karsh

A bold interpretation of the struggle for mastery in the Middle East between 1789 and 1923--revealing a pattern of cooperation and conflict with the West during the past two centuries, rather than a "clash of civilizations." 27 halftones.

The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789–1923

Empires of the Sand

P.R. Kumaraswamy

This book draws on the research of some of the leading scholars in the fields of Jewish-Islamic relations, the Israeli-Arab conflict and political Islam. These highly topical essays examine the relationship between Israel and the Islamic world from both a thematic and geo-strategic perspective. Divided into two distinct sections, the first section of the book deals with issues relating to contemporary Jewish-Muslim relations and, in particular, looks at the attitude towards the Jewish state amongst opinion-makers, religious institutions and leaders in the Muslim world. Key issues such as the Islamic attitude to Palestinian suicide-bombing, and Arab anti-Semitism are addressed here. The second section examines the attitude of key Muslim nations – Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan – to the Jewish state, and charts the evolving, bilateral relationship between these nations and Israel from the birth of the Jewish State in 1948 up to the present day. This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Israel Affairs.

Islamic Attitudes to Israel

This text takes issue with the new historians exposing Zionist narrative, arguing that they have ignored or misinterpreted much documentation in developing their analysis of Israel's history.

The "new Historians"

Fabricating Israeli History

P. R. Kumaraswamy

This volume provides a wide ranging historical survey of the special relationship between the Zionist movement and Israel with the Hashemite family and its far-reaching implications for Middle Eastern affairs in general, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. It includes chapters on Transjordan and the Yishuv, and the history of covert relations between Jordan and Israel.

The Fateful Triangle

Israel, the Hashemites, and the Palestinians

The essays that make up this study provide a wide-ranging survey of the special relationship that exists between the Israelis and the Hashemite family. This relationship is shown to have far-reaching implications for Middle Eastern affairs.

The Iran-Iraq War, which ended in the summer of 1988, a month short of its eighth anniversary, is undoubtedly the Third World's longest and bloodiest conflict in a half-century. As such, its lessons and implications extend beyond the geographical confines of the Middle East. Bringing together Israeli, American and European specialists from the fields of Middle East history, international relations, strategy and economics, this book offers the first comprehensive post bellum analysis of the impact and implications of the Iran-Iraq war. The book starts with an examination of the war's impact on the domestic and foreign affairs of the two belligerents, continues with a discussion of the political ramifications of the war in both the regional and the global spheres, and concludes by analysing the economic, military and strategic implications.

Impact and Implications

The Iran-Iraq War

Inari Rautsi

A political biography traces the rise of Saddam Hussein to one of the most powerful, and feared, political leaders in the world.

A Political Biography

Saddam Hussein

From the first Arab-Islamic Empire of the mid-seventh century to the Ottomans, the last great Muslim empire, the story of the Middle East has been the story of the rise and fall of universal empires and, no less important, of imperialist dreams. So argues Efraim Karsh in this highly provocative book. Rejecting the conventional Western interpretation of Middle Eastern history as an offshoot of global power politics, Karsh contends that the region's experience is the culmination of long-existing indigenous trends, passions, and patterns of behavior, and that foremost among these is Islam's millenarian imperial tradition. The author explores the history of Islam's imperialism and the persistence of the Ottoman imperialist dream that outlasted World War I to haunt Islamic and Middle Eastern politics to the present day. September 11 can be seen as simply the latest expression of this dream, and such attacks have little to do with U.S. international behavior or policy in the Middle East, says Karsh. The House of Islam's war for world mastery is traditional, indeed venerable, and it is a quest that is far from over.

A History

Islamic Imperialism

Lawrence Freedman

The Gulf Conflict provides the most authoritative and comprehensive account to date of Iraq's occupation of Kuwait, its expulsion by a coalition of Western and Arab forces seven months later, and the aftermath of the war. Blending compelling narrative history with objective analysis, Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh inquire into the fundamental issues underlying the dispute and probe the strategic calculations of all the participants.

Diplomacy and War in the New World Order

The Gulf Conflict, 1990-1991

The authors "show how the Hashemites played a decisive role in shaping present Middle Eastern boundaries and in hastening the collapse of Ottoman rule."--Jacket.

The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789-1923

Rory Miller

Michael Kerr

This book is a wide-ranging and innovative study of Israeli-Lebanese relations from the birth of the Jewish state in 1948 to the Israel-Lebanon War of 2006. Israel’s relationship with its Arab neighbours is a subject of perennial interest in the Middle East. The relationship between Israel and Lebanon has taken numerous forms since the establishment of the Jewish state and the chapters in this timely and important volume provide a comprehensive, detailed and informative analysis of the evolving ties between the two countries up to the present day. The contributors are drawn from numerous disciplines in the social sciences and humanities; and contributions range from the impact of the Arab-Israeli conflict on the Jews of Lebanon, to the role of external powers (the EU, the US and Arab world) on Israeli-Lebanese relations, as well as the legal mechanisms regulating the bilateral political relationship to the Palestinian Refugee problem as a factor in Israeli-Lebanese relations. This book was published as a special issue of Israel Affairs.

Conflict, Diplomacy and Society in Israeli-Lebanese Relations

The end of the British mandate in Palestine heralded the birth of the new state of Israel. It also marked the end of one of the most tumultuous and momentous chapters in Israeli history. But the new state, born into a hostile environment and struggling with the manifold demands of sovereignty, would have to face many post-Independence challenges to its existence, not least in the form of armed conflict and confrontation with its Arab neighbours. This volume examines the conflicts that from the 1948 until the 1967 Six Day War came to define the Israeli struggle for existence.

Efraim Karsh

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