Posts Tagged ‘power’

The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations

• ISBN13: 9780385516112
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description
In a provocative, timely book, a noted journalist and expert on Arab-American affairs overturns long-held Western myths about the Arab world, and offers a doctrine to help the United States correct its assumptions concerning the region.

Wanting to know why September 11 happened, journalist Lee Smith moved to Cairo. There, he discovered that the standard explanation-a clash of East and West led to the attacks-was simply not the case. As Smith outlines in The Strong Horse, the problems of the Middle East have little to do with Israel, the United States, or the West in general. The strife exists within the Arab world itself.

Through clear-eyed analysis, Smith explodes the many myths permeating Americans’ understanding of the Arab world: colonialism spurred the region’s ongoing turmoil; Arab liberalism is waiting for U.S. intervention; technology and democracy can be transforming. In response to these untruths, Smith offers what he terms the “Strong Horse Doctrine”-that Arabs want to align themselves with strength, power, and violence. Given America’s ongoing interest in the Middle East, Smith says America needs to be the strong horse in order to reclaim its role there, and only by understanding the nature of the region’s ancient conflict can we succeed.

The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations

The Duke of Dubai

Product Description
2009 Indie Book Award Finalist for Best Multicultural Fiction

Adventure Novel with Historical Overtones; based on author’s personal experiences.
Carved from the sun-baked sands of Arabia, Dubai has evolved from an oil boomtown into one of today’s most exciting and opulent metropolises. In this world of wealth and power, mystery and intrigue, Luigi Falconi is transformed from a naïve youth to Lou Falconi, The Falcon. Adopted into the brotherhood of eccentric expatriates, amusing Arabs and assorted adventurers led by The Duke, Lou is swept up in the excitement of Dubai’s burgeoning development, discovers its morally conflicting cultural codes and uncovers many of its secrets.
He also discovers within himself greed, the desire to accumulate wealth like that of his compatriots, which leads him through the back streets of his conscience to various get rich quick scams and schemes.
This book takes the reader on a magic carpet ride deep into the political, cultural and sometimes perilous realm of modern Dubai, one of the wonders of the modern world, where money begets power, and power rules.

The Duke of Dubai

Abu Dhabi: Oil and Beyond

Product Description

A rising economic power, Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, is poised to become a major player in the fortunes of both Third and First World countries. Abu Dhabi owns more than 8 percent of the world’s oil reserves, has close to one trillion dollars to invest in sovereign wealth funds, and is about to implement a masterful set of economic initiatives that will yield even greater returns.

Abu Dhabi has begun to eclipse its partner city, Dubai, in terms of sheer wealth and cultural and infrastructural development, opening the world’s first Ferrari theme park and erecting satellite branches of the Guggenheim and the Louvre. Author of the best-selling Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success and an expert on Gulf politics, Christopher M. Davidson tracks Abu Dhabi’s remarkable growth from a modest, eighteenth-century sheikhdom to its present opulent state. He recounts the dramatic efforts made by the emirate’s dynastic family to retain their power, detailing the system of “tribal capitalism” they created in order to reconcile old political allegiances with modern engines of growth. Davidson concludes with potential challenges to Abu Dhabi’s political and economic success, including a weakening of civil society, invasive media censorship, an ongoing labor crisis, increasing federal unrest, and persistent underperformance in the education sector.

Abu Dhabi: Oil and Beyond