Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East

"A trenchant and often pugnacious demolition of the numerous misconceptions about strategic thinking on the Middle East"
-The New York Times

Now updated with a new chapter on the current climate, Myths, Illusions, and Peace addresses why the United States has consistently failed to achieve its strategic goals in the Middle East. According to Dennis Ross-special advisor to President Obama and senior director at the National Security Council for that region-and policy analyst David Makovsky, it is because we have repeatedly fallen prey to dangerous myths about this part of the world-myths with roots that reach back decades yet persist today. Clearly articulated and accessible, Myths, Illusions, and Peace captures the real­ity of the problems in the Middle East like no book has before. It presents a concise and far-reaching set of principles that will help America set an effective course of action in the region, and in so doing secure a safer future for all Americans.

Dennis Ross is a top State Department official for the region that includes Iran and Iraq. He is the bestselling author of The Missing Peace.
David Makovsky is a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the author of Making Peace with the PLO. Both authors live in the Washington, D.C., area.

"A must read...Myths, Illusions, and Peace is a serious, nonideological analysis of where we are and how we got here."---St. Louis Post-Dispatch