The international relations of the Middle East have long been dominated by uncertainty and conflict. External intervention, interstate war, political upheaval and interethnic violence are compounded by the vagaries of oil prices and the claims of military nationalist and religious movements. Fred Halliday sets this region and its conflicts in context, providing on the one hand, a historical introduction to its character and problems, and, on the other, a reasoned analysis of its politics.
Simon Frederick Peter Halliday, FBA (22 February 1946 in Dublin, Ireland – 26 April 2010 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain) was an Irish writer and academic specialising in International Relations and the Middle East, with particular reference to the Cold War, Iran, and the Arabian peninsula..