America's Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East

Ambassador Chas W. Freeman Jr. is one of America's most brilliant and experienced diplomats and an outspoken advocate of diplomacy and other measures short of war to address international problems. In the first installment of this work, he trenchantly described the challenges he faced when, as US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in 1990, he worked with coalition partners to push Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. He also reflected on the origins of Washington's numerous intelligence failures in the Middle East, "the American way of war," and Washington's consistent failure in recent decades to plan for termination and a stable political end-state for the wars it has so cavalierly launched.

American's Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East is a revised and updated version of that earlier work. In it, Freeman deploys his customary insight and wit to look at the significance of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the complex consequences of the Arab Spring, the special role the Middle East plays in global affairs (and in US strategy and politics), and the roles played in the region by China and other world powers.