Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East Paperback – November 14, 2017

Dark, long, very readable volume. A rigorously made case that fundamentalist Islamic and eventually violently extremist salafi-jihadi forces have been repeatedly co-opted by the Anglo-American alliance for many decades as part of a wider 'counter revolutionary' campaign to keep control over resources and the foreign policies of valuable regions and countries. Mostly kept at arms length and directed against their enemies, whether Arab nationalists or Iranian democrats trying to break up bad deals with Western business interests, and then the Soviets, Qaddafi, now Assad's regime, and so on, these dangerous forces have occasionally given the West 'blowback' back in their home yard. The blowback has mostly been managed by going after peripheral culprits such as Sudan, Iraqi Baathists and the Taleban, and then kickstarting various 'wars on terror' as the Anglo-American alliance has sought new ways to intervene in energy-rich parts of the Middle East and Central Asia. As the book takes pains to point out; in almost no cases have the root causes of these extremist organisations ever been properly dealt wealth, as the extremist organisations have remained 'strategic but volatile assets' right up until today and have been largely funded by wealthy networks in important US allies in the Middle East such as Kuwait, Saudi and most of all Qatar.Particularly liked the discussion of secret US relations with the Islamic Iran republic, with the modus established between Reagan, Tehran to help keep Iran in the game in the Iran-Iraq war, while also helping out the US in funding the Nicaraguan contras. Also liked the parts on 9-11, Bosnia, Nigeria, Mali, the UK government funded 'White Helmets' media war over Syria, the plot to carve up Libyan assets, and the future of US policy after the shale oil revolution and the Iran deal.Unlike previous attempts to take on this massive topic, this is not a journalistic account and contains no throwaway speculations, with almost every single point backed up by often several references at one time, many of which can be found online for corroboration. Very much a 'conspiracy in plain sight' delivered to us by a professor at an established British school. Some of the language can be a slightly dry in places, but this is not a casual topic. The book could have used a couple of maps, especially of the current war in Iraq and Syria as the jihadist forces have been used to fragment or partition these two important Arab states.As one of very few books to make significant use of Wikileaks and other such documents and one which challenges many assumptions about Anglo-American policy and history the book and the author are simply not going to be well received in some quarters.

It is tempting to want to dive straight into the parts about who is behind ISIS and the history of Al-Qaeda and 9/11, or the sections on the media's role in the Syrian and Libyan wars, but its also well worth reading the whole book from the very beginning, as the evidence builds and builds with layer on layer being added to understanding how American and British foreign policies have worked over time. Also do not assume that this book is only about the Middle East, as although most of the material is, there are also very alarming sections on central America, Africa, Mali, Boko Haram and other conflicts. Oil is of course one of the main topics and I can't really put it better than prof Leif Wenar (above) who says 'An avalanche of spies, lies, covert actions and overt aggression - Davidson shows how many of the West's troubles in the Middle East have emerged from its relentless search for resources.'

Not as balanced as I would like.

Impressive book with a cool aplroach to reality on the ground, sheer interest driving foreign interference in the region.

Crucial.

A book that will turn your world upside down. Or at least your existing understanding of the US's historic and present role in the Middle East. It will be a bitter pill for many to swallow, especially if you believe that the US has largely been a benign force on the world stage, but the sheer weight of unrelenting evidence is of the sort that can't just be swept under the rug.The central argument is that the Western states, first Britain and then the US have repeatedly tried to prevent strong nation states forming in the Middle East on the basis that such states could potentially:- ally with other foreign powers (including the USSR during the Cold War)- nationalize their resources and dismantle lucrative monopolies held by Western companies over oil, gas, cheap labour, Suez canal, etc.To this end, Britain and the US engaged in a mix of covert operations or 'shadow wars' often using local proxies to stop rebellions (as in Oman and Yemen) and to undermine or replace governments that could have put the Middle East on a different path (including Nasser's Egypt and Mossadegh's Iran). As the Cold War persisted, these shadow wars became ever more dangerous as the US and Britain together with local allies such as Saudi Arabia started to export Islamic extremism as a counterforce to secular Arab nationalism and other secular allies of the USSR, most notably the government of Afghanistan.The best part of the book looks at how the secret operations and shadow wars have continued after 9/11 (9/11 was funded by renegade Saudi princes who needed to keep Al-Qaeda onboard following Bin Laden's criticism of their monarchy in the mid 1990s), and especially after the Arab Spring, as key US allies were lost in Tunisia and Egypt, requiring the return of US-backed Islamists and eventually military dictators. Then in Libya and Syria, in which full national revolutions never really took place, the US and its Arab allies made sure that uprisings were supported and all manner of groups were funded to make ensure that longstanding US foes such as Gaddafi and Assad were toppled. As this got out of hand, the US' Arab allies have increasingly turned back to the old Afghan strategy of funding some of the most extremist groups imaginable in order to get the job done, including new versions of Al-Qaeda.In terms of references, this is by far one of the best sourced books on the subject to have ever appeared on the market. The main text of the book is 530 pages long, while the references run to a further 130 pages and there are probably several thousand in total. These include a mixture of archival documents (mainly British and American declassifications), leaked documents (many from the big batch of US State Dept diplomatic leaks around 2009-2012), and probably best of all a number of court mandated documents including some of former Sec of State Clinton's emails (not the recent Wikileak versions) and proceedings from a wide array of cases ranging from Saudi NGO funding to private sector contractor lawsuits and even the recent 9/11 victims' compensation lawsuit. There are also a number of interviews, some anonymous given the circumstances, but some are named in full too. The book makes extensive use of historical newspaper archives in different languages (French, Arabic, Serbian, etc) and includes references to many pieces that are now only available as hardcopy, if you can still find them. There are TV interviews too, most memorably from a former DIA chief who has claimed that between 2012 and 2014 the US 'wilfully' ignored the expansion of ISIS as it suited the interests of its regional Arab allies, most of which wanted to see an end to the Iran-allied governments in Damascus and Baghdad.Unsurprisingly and to be expected there are already many reviews of this book online. The two that stand out for me so far, as they are the best researched and most balanced, are probably Steve Donoghue's essay for Christian Science Monitor ('Shadow Wars exposes underlying patterns behind Middle Eastern strife') and Robert Morris' essay over on Goodreads, who makes that point that many of the newspaper articles referenced in this book have long since disappeared down the memory hole, including even pieces in the LA Times, the Washington Post, and the crucial US News & World report on Saudi and Iran terror financing produced by David Kaplan and his team in 2003.One area in which I thought the writer could have gone into a bit more detail would have been on Turkey's role, although he does cover the interesting court cases that point to Turkish intelligence's role in helping smuggle Qatari and other weapons across the Syrian border for ISIS and other groups. It would have been good to have covered the strange 'coup' that took place in summer 2016, but I suppose this took place after the book had already gone to press.

Where to begin? As an Intl' Relations postgrad with Intl' Law and Defense/INT knowledge, this book to me has laid out the A-Z of the Middle Eastern crisis from early times to modern times. This is a SERIOUS book, from pp1 you are catapulted into facts and stats - no winded sentences or segues, just pure facts.This is almost like a manual - it will teach you all about the HUMINT/SECSTATE/FCO ops in ME in 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70-90s and then the 2001, 2003 and 00s Arab Spring and other Liberal Hegemonic plan-of-attacks. This books is BIG - mine arrived and it was about 2-3x the size of a standard book - the size reminds me of Dr Kissinger's Diplomacy (1994).This book is inspiring on all levels and it is also a strong reminder just how intelligent some people are - namely C.Davidson - this is a work of history, intelligence, diplomatic history and geopolitics+geostrategy in one.I would recommend this to anyone who has passed the James Barr/Other superb Arabists and are now looking for something focused on HUMINT/SIGINT, coup-d'etats and regime change in Realist/Hegemonic guise(s) = any Mearsheimer scholars or people who have read 5+ Advanced FP/FPA books - this is the one.This is my go to for any Arab Revolts and CIA missions (incl. SIS/MI6). It fuses the DEPTSTATE with CIA and other Intel Agencies (G2x).The best purchase I have made.

very well written and it explains a lot of what has happened in the Middle East

This is an amazingly well written and deeply analytical book - It lays bear the sheer cynical usage of jihadist organisations by the USA and other western powers to advance their narrow commercial interests - The untold story that you will never see in mainstream media or journalism is told in its entirety - This is an unputdownable book and alas it also shows what a rotten place this world truly is - Anyone in the middle east fighting in the name of religion and ideology would stop what they are doing if they understood how they are being manipulated like puppets - Alas , imperialism is truly alive and well and unfortunately thriving

John Pilger says its "Outstanding" he's not exaggerating, this book is so well researched. As a former photojournalist I am in awe of Davidson and his craft. He shows the dirty wars fought/funded by Western governments and who they slept with... for what. Buy it, read it, you will not be disappointed.

Still going through the book. A damning indictment of Western government policies towards the Arab World. Plus ça change...