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Gallimard-Folio
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Just a few short years ago, the Turkish Model was being hailed across the world. The New York Times gushed that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) had effectively integrated Islam, democracy, and vibrant economics, making Turkey, according to the International Crisis Group, the envy of the Arab world. And yet, a more recent CNN headline wondered if Erdogan had become a dictator. In this incisive analysis, Cihan Tugal argues that this development runs broader and deeper than Erdogan's increasing personal authoritarianism. The problems are inherent in the very model of Islamic liberalism, once lauded in the Western press, that formed the basis of the AKP's ascendancy and rule since 2002-an intended marriage of neoliberalism and democracy. And this model can also only be understood as a response to regional politics-especially to the Iranian Model, a marriage of corporatism and Islamic revolution. |
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Since its commencement in the upsurge of the Arab Spring in 2011, the Syrian civil war has claimed in excess of 200,000 lives, with an estimated 8 million Syrians, more than a third of the country's population, forced to flee their homes. A stalemate now exists but out of the vacuum has emerged the Sunni insurgents ISIS who now, it is estimated occupies some 35% of the country, as well as vast territory across the border in Iraq. The west has failed to get to grips with this conflict. The US and Europe failed to anticipate Assad's sudden actions or his counter attacks. Support from Iran and Russia make any decisive action impossible. The consequences of that miscalculation, Charles Glass contends in this illuminating and concise survey, have contributed greatly to the unfolding disaster that we witness today. Glass combines reportage, analysis and history to provide an accessible overview of the origins and permutations defining the conflict, situating it clearly in the overall crisis of the region. His voice is elegant and concise, humane and richly-informed. |
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Out of the failures of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Arab Spring and Syria, a new threat emerges. While Al Qaeda is weakened, new jihadi movements, especially ISIS, are starting to emerge. In military operations in June 2014 they were far more successful than Al Qaeda ever were, taking territory that reaches across borders and includes the city of Mosul. The reports of their military coordination and brutality are chilling. While they call for the formation of a new caliphate once again the West becomes a target. How could things have gone so badly wrong? In The Rise of Islamic State, Cockburn analyzes the reasons for the unfolding of US and the West's greatest foreign policy debacle and the impact that it has on the war-torn and volatile Middle East. |
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