Image ???? : U.S.’s York guards the Rumaila oilfield in southern Iraq March 23, 2003 while patrolling with the British Army’s 216 Air Assault Signals Squadron. U.S. and British forces on Sunday tightened their grip on Iraq’s southern oil region and began assessing how to restart exports from fields holding more than half the country’s oil wealth.
This past week, Senior Research Fellow Steven Simon published a new book, entitled “Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East.”
The book provides a comprehensive look at the United States’ engagement in the Middle East over the past forty years. Covering the beginning of the Reagan administration until now, Steve critiques the United States’ destabilizing presence in the region, marked by prolonged military adventurism, punitive economic sanctions, and ill-advised partnerships with despotic regimes. In all, it is an essential read, a cautionary history that illuminates American’s propensity for self-deception and misadventure at a moment when the nation is redefining its global engagement.
To purchase the book from Penguin Random House, click here.
Also check out Steve’s interview on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis:
Written bySteven Simon
Steven Simon is a Senior Analyst at the Quincy Institute. He studied theology at Harvard and public policy at Princeton before government service at the State Department and the NSC.