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| Author: | Vali R. Nasr, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies |
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| Publisher: | A CFR Book. Free Press |
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Release Date: September 2009
320 pages
ISBN 978-1416589686
$26.00
Renowned Middle East expert Vali Nasr's bestselling The Shia Revival profoundly transformed the debate about the Iraq War by unveiling how the Sunni-Shia rift was driving the insurgency. Now, in Forces of Fortune, Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
His groundbreaking analysis will utterly rewrite the wisdom about how the West can best contend with the threat of Islamic extremism, as well as about what we can expect from the Muslim world in the future. The great battle for the soul of Iran, the Arab world, Pakistan, and the entire region will be fought not over religion, Nasr reveals, but over business and capitalism.
With a deft combination of historical narrative and eye-opening contemporary on-the-ground reporting from his constant trips to the region, Nasr takes us behind the news, so dominated by the struggle against extremists and the Taliban, to introduce a Muslim world we've not seen; a Muslim world in which the balance of power is being reshaped by an upwardly mobile middle class of entrepreneurs, investors, professionals, and avid consumers—who can tip the scales away from extremist belligerence. His insights into the true situations in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the crucial bright spots of Dubai and Turkey provide a whole new way of thinking about the troubles and prospects in the region.
Drawing on his in-depth knowledge of the Muslim world's tortured history, he offers a powerful reassessment of why both extremism and anti-Americanism took hold in the region—not because of an inevitable "clash of cultures" or the nature of Islam, but because of the failure of this kind of authentic middle class to develop in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, largely due to the insidious effects first of colonialism and then of top-down dictatorial regimes, often supported by the West. He then shows that the devoutly Islamic yet highly modern Muslims of what he calls the "critical middle"—in Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, and the stealth force behind the extraordinary growth of aggressively capitalist Dubai—are finally the middle class the region has desperately needed. They are building a whole new economy—as the middle classes did in both India and China—and their distinctive blending of Islam and capitalism is the key to bringing about lasting reform and to defeating fundamentalism. They are people in the region the West can and must do business with.
Forces of Fortune offers a transformative understanding of the Muslim world and its possible future that is sure to spark lively debate and to play a vital role in bringing about a sea change in thinking about the conflict with Islam.
Read Vali Nasr's piece in Newsweek.
Watch Vali Nasr on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Watch the clip on Fareed Zakaria GPS.
"Nasr shows how growing economies and a new business class will be more important than extremist ideologies in determining how the Middle East interacts with the world. This is a wonderful combination of historical analysis and insightful reporting."
—Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute and author of Kissinger: A Biography
"Vali Nasr masterfully articulates his argument through comprehensive research and vivid reporting. A must read."
—Senator John F. Kerry
"Vali Nasr's new paradigm about the rise of a new Muslim middle class will be embraced by a broad spectrum of experts: because it is a startling truth hiding in plain sight that Nasr brilliantly reveals and elaborates."
—Robert D. Kaplan, author of Balkan Ghosts and Imperial Grunts
"With his unique credentials and bold insights, Vali Nasr has written a landmark work at a pivotal time. It's a rich and exciting read."
—Robin Wright, author of Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East
"In this fascinating and timely book, Vali Nasr argues lucidly that free trade, not sanctions, is the key to a democratic awakening in the Muslim world. Forces of Fortune seems bound to be influential."
—Jon Lee Anderson, author of The Fall of Baghdad
"Take American chips away from the endlessly hypocritical and fruitless diplomatic games and rhetoric, our weakest hand, and put the chips on our strength -- helping Middle Eastern and Muslim countries with economic growth. That's the way to ultimately defeat the terrorists, build the middle classes, loosen ties to Arab autocrats, and develop democracies. That's Vali Nasr's brilliant message. It's the only way to rescue U.S. foreign policy from disasters."
—Leslie H. Gelb, former New York Times columnist and senior government official, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations
Vali Nasr is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University and a senior fellow of the Dubai Initiative run by the Harvard Kennedy School. He is the author of The Shia Revival, Democracy in Iran, and The Islamic Leviathan. He appears regularly on major network news shows as an expert on Middle Eastern affairs and writes for the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. He was born in Iran and emigrated to the United States.
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