The Age of Jihad: Islamic State and the Great War for the Middle East

(Paperback)

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Description

Cockburn was the first Western journalist to warn of the dangers posed by Islamic State. His originality and breadth of vision make The Age of Jihad the most in-depth analysis of the regional crisis in the Middle East to date. 2001 heralded a new age of disintegration in the Middle East. This has had a murderous impact on the people who live there but also the world beyond. Beginning with the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, Cockburn explores the vast geopolitical struggle that is the SunniShia conflict, a clash that shapes the war on terror, western military interventions, the evolution of the insurgency, the civil wars in Yemen, Libya and Syria, the Arab Spring, the fall of regional dictators, and the rise of Islamic State.

Reviews

Quite simply, the best Western journalist at work in the Middle East today. -- Seymour M Hersh
It is a brilliant tour d'horizon of the new wars, a chronicle compiled from despatches, notes and diaries. No one could be better placed for this task and no one else could have produced such a lucid and comprehensive account. -- Robert Fox * Evening Standard *
This book is required reading for anyone who wants to try to understand the disaster. It should be compulsory reading for politicians, diplomats, defence chiefs and the academic think-tanks whose members make confident predictions, usually confounded by what follows. -- Allan Massie * Scotland on Sunday *
A fine and courageous journalist, who has displayed a sustained commitment to laying bare the tribulations of the Middle East...This book confirms Cockburn's reputation as a reporter and analyst -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *

Author Bio

Patrick Cockburn is a Middle East correspondent for the Independent and has previously worked for the Financial Times. He has written three books on Iraqs recent history, including the National Book Circle Awardsshortlisted The Occupation. He won the Martha Gellhorn Prize in 2005, the James Cameron Prize in 2006 and the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2009. More recently he has been awarded Foreign Commentator of the Year at the 2013 Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards, Foreign Affairs Journalist of the Year at the 2014 British Journalism Awards and Foreign Reporter of the Year at the 2014 Press Awards.