A gripping narrative history of one of the most complex and important conflicts in the world--the battle to dominate the Middle East regional order, from 2003 to the presentWhen President George W. Bush took office in January 2001, America''s influence in the Middle East was relatively strong, and adversarial states were largely marginalized and contained. The September 11 attacks upended all of this and prompted the Bush administration''s bold plan to remake the Middle East through a war in Iraq. By bringing liberal democracy to Iraq, Bush hoped that the country would be a springboard for the spread of democracy to neighboring authoritarian states, aiming to make the region not only more stable, prosperous, and amenable to Western values but also more friendly and accepting toward Israel. Yet the vast disruption that the war caused created an opportunity for Iran to advance its own opposing ambitions. Iran strove to turn the Middle East into a bastion of resistance to Western hegemony
