In this magisterial work, one of the English language media's most respected authorities on the Arab world, David Gardner, addresses the controversial but urgent question: why is the Middle East so dysfunctional? For too long this question has been the preserve of Orientalists like Bernard Lewis. Clear-sighted, never flinching from unpalatable truths, Gardner draws on his acute grasp of history and decades of experience covering the region to look at why conflict, despotism and sectarianism continue to flourish in the Arab world whilst as they decline everywhere else.The 'Middle East exception' is, he argues, a product of the West's own making. By supporting tyrants, fuelling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and demonizing democratically elected Islamist parties, the West in general but specifically America has incubated a region inherently resistant to economic and political reform, and suppurating with resentment. With a new US administration planning its Middle East policy, Gardner argues for nothing less than a total reappraisal of what realpolitik means in the Middle East. The traditional shibboleths: support Israel, mollify the Saudis, suppress Islamism, simply will not do in the 21st century, he argues. Both an introduction to the modern Middle East and an impassioned polemic, 'Last Chance' is essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of the region. 'Yet, having read this beautifully written, page-turner of a book, I find myself clinging desperately to a few shards of hope. We can; really we can.' - Chris Patten, FINANCIAL TIMES
