Obama and the Middle East: The end of America's moment? (*)

Author: Fawaz A. Gerges

Book Review by: Rabab Obeid (**) 

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

Year of publication: 2012

Number of pages: 292

ISBN: 978-0-230-11381-7

Fawaz Gerges is Director and Professor of Contemporary Middle East Studies at The London School of Economics (LSE). He is an Arab-American citizen with expertise on US foreign policy, Middle East politics, social movements including Islamist groups, Arab–Israeli conflict, etc. Along with Obama and the Middle East, he is author of America and political Islam: Clash of cultures or clash of interests (1999); The far enemy: Why Jihad went global (2005; 2009); Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim militancy (2006); and The rise and fall of Al-Qaeda (2011).

In this book Gerges seeks to answer several questions mainly: Despite Barack Obama’s idealistic rhetoric, how can his foreign policy be classified – transformational or realist? Has he stridden away from the Israel-first policy? Where does the Middle East rank on Obama’s foreign policy priorities? How does his response to the Arab uprisings reflect the American engagement and position in the region? (25).

While attempting to answer these questions, this book employs an impressively informative and analytic literature on the stance of the United States in the Middle East. It is rich with reliable references and insightful quotations, in addition to a colourful and expressive terminology together with a reader-friendly style.

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