The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East By Olivier Roy (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. 165 pages.)

Abstract

This relatively short and succinct book, written by a prominent French political
analyst, offers an insight not only into post-9/11 American military and
strategic dilemmas, but also a glimpse into the respective European conceptions
and ways of thinking. Its main thrust is that the American reaction to
the events of that day, far from producing an outcome in the image of a
“hyperpower in a unipolar world,” has instead bogged it down as a “power
tied up in knots, incapable of policing the world” (p. 3). This “hopeless” situation,
according to Roy, was brought on the Americans by themselves,
rather than as a result of their enemies, be they the Taliban, al-Qaeda, or Iran
(p. 3). While the American invasion of Iraq produced deep geostrategic
transformations in the Middle East, these did not always produce the results
that American decision makers had countenanced ...