Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contributors -- Preface -- Part I. Broad patterns -- 1. Toward a framework for analysis / Tareq Y. Ismael and Glenn E. Perry -- 2. Imperialism and its manifestations in the Middle East / William W. Haddad and Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi -- Part II. The center in an age of inequality -- 3. The United States: a hegemon challenged / Stephen Zunes -- Israel: the limits of conventional and nuclear deterrence / Ghada Hashem Talhami -- Part III. Potential counterbalancing forces -- 5. Post-revolutionary Iran: resisting global and regional hegemony / Mojtaba Mahdavi -- 6. Egypt: the continuing storm? / Karen Abul -- 7. Turkey under the AKP: axis change or pragmatic activism / Tozun Bahcheli -- 8. "Identity politics": Europe, the EU and the Arab Spring / Philip Marfleet and Fran Cetti -- 9. The United Nations and the Middle East: a guide for the perplexed / Richard Falk -- Index.

This book's main theme is that--unlike a few decades ago, when it was meaningfully seen as an autonomous subsystem of the global international political system--the Middle East now is subordinate to the only remaining superpower, the United States, in alliance with Israel (an unusual alliance in that the latter, as the local manifestation of a worldwide movement, penetrates the political system of the former and, within limits, sometimes dominates it) and Arab client regimes. This pattern of international politics is described as imperialism. Following an extensive introductory chapter that establishes the themes and structure of the larger text, this volume evaluates Middle East politics within the context of contemporary international order, in which the Middle East is viewed as a subordinate periphery.