Battleground: Ten Conflicts That Explain the New Middle East

Phillips is loath to characterize the Middle East as a place defined by bloodshed and carnage, and he examines a variety of its conflicts sensitively and effectively to explore patterns of international politics in the region. The book provides serviceable capsule histories and analyses of the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings in Syria and Egypt and ongoing disputes in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel-Palestine, and among the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The volume serves as a good reference for those who need a quick primer on who’s who in Libya and Yemen, for example, and adds a particularly useful chapter on the Horn of Africa. Phillips’s most valuable contribution, however, is the emphasis he places on the role of external intervention in these conflicts. The astonishing growth of outside meddling is what makes this Middle East “new.” Local forces have become increasingly beholden to familiar players such as the United States and Europe, newly assertive global actors including China and Russia, and—most tellingly—Gulf powers: all outsiders whose interests are only tangentially aligned with those of their clients and proxies. More than any domestic dynamic, these external forces make conflict resolution a thorny challenge.