The Ottoman Gulf: The Creation of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar by Frederick F.

Anscombe
Review by: L. Carl Brown
Foreign Affairs, Vol. 77, No. 3 (May - Jun., 1998), pp. 151-152
Published by: Council on Foreign Relations
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20048941 .
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 Recent Books
narra NEMAT SHAFiK. NewYork:
pressed by his richly documented St.
tive of inter-Arab which is Martin's Press, 1998, 266 pp. $68.00.
diplomacy,
fair to all parties. Prospects for Middle Eastern and North
Economies: From Boom to Bust
African
Islam, Democracy, and the State inNorth and Back? edited by nemat
EDITED BY JOHN P. ENTELIS. shafik. NewYork: St. Martin's Press,
Africa.
Bloomington: Indiana University 1998,325 pp. $68.00.
Press, 1997, 228 pp. $35.00 These two volumes under the
produced
(paper, $15.95). aegis of the Economic Research Forum
a veteran team of American for the Arab Countries, Iran, and Turkey
Fielding
Maghribi specialists, this book discusses primarily bring together papers presented
Islam and politics, human as at a in Tunisia in June 1995.
rights, workshop
pects of political economy, and the The second volume bears amarked
international dimension of prospects World Bank stamp, with 19 of the 22 con
for democratization in Islamic North tributors coming from that organization.
African states. The Islam for It treats issues
that go beyond
chapters, single
all their different orientations, fit into countries (for example, the region's re
the following formula: Islam is misun lations to the emerging world economy,
derstood and often demonized in the poverty, and environmentally sustainable
the role of governments in the 12
West, growth). The first volume has chapters
area in Islamism has been on individual countries one
confronting (excepting
ham-fisted at best, and there are numbers chapter treating the Gulf Cooperation
of Islamist moderates with whom these Council states). All these are
chapters
Maghribi governments and theWest written by specialists who are either
could work. The political economy working in the country they study (the
chapters paint a bleak picture of high majority)
or have roots in that
country?
statist uncom and are free of Orientalism. With a
unemployment, regimes
fortable with privatization, and rentier helpful each
synopsis introducing chap
governments out ter, these two books
receiving just enough well-integrated
side support to avoid the
tough choices offer quality studies illuminated by
to accommodate their domestic statistics, charts, and graphs as well as
required
constituencies. All chapters advance useful bibliographies. Solid reference
useful arguments based on solid
research. works. Bankers' prices.
Mark Tessler's richly documented thesis
that support for Islamist movements is The Ottoman Gulf: The Creation of
correlated to lack of economic Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, by
closely
opportunity is particularly FREDERICK F. ANSCOMBE. New
noteworthy.
York: Columbia University Press, 1997,
Economie ChallengesFacingMiddle 270 pp. $47.50 (paper, $17.50).
Eastern and North traces the Ottoman
African Countries: Anscombe
Empire's
Alternative Futures, edited by last big effort to its position in
strengthen

To order any book reviewed or advertised inForeign

Affairs, call 800-255-2665.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS May/Junei998 [151]

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 Recent Books

Arabia, beginning in the 1870s and end book the series of intelligence
explores
in failure accounts
ing by 1913.Most of and policy failures that prevented the
Arabia in these years have told the story U.S. government from comprehending
from the perspective of the British, the that North Korea was accommo
seeking
Saudis, or the Hashimites. But there was dation as early as 1991.Most senior Bush
another party?the Ottoman Empire, administration officials believed
incorrectly
which just happened to claim sovereignty that nuclear diplomacy with North
over most of the area. Anscombe Korea could not succeed, and hostility
presents
the Ottoman role and perspective while in Congress to dealing with North Korea
due attention to the activities of reinforced their reluctance to try. The
giving
the outside powers (essentially Britain) Clinton administration compounded
and the Arabs. Starting with the earlier these failures by initially embracing ends
Ottoman role in the Gulf, the book then that could not be attained and eschewing
describes Prime Minister Midhat Pasha's deal-making. Finally, the administration
bold to reassert Ottoman control had what one State Department official
plan
and mount an ambitious economic devel called a "gaping void at the top of the
opment program. Later chapters follow bureaucracy": there was no one in charge
events to the (unratified) 1913Anglo of policy toward North Korea. As a re
Ottoman accord recognizing Britain's sult, American diplomatic strategy was
position inKuwait. Why the Ottoman one of drift
punctuated by spasms of
failure? Imperial overstretch with too
zigzagging. This failure highlights a
many problems in too many
places, and critical weakness: the inability of the
that made United States to develop a balance of
rudimentary transportation
Arabia very far from Istanbul. carrots and sticks for adversaries who are

extremely unpopular domestically, who

are and with whom it
easily demonized,
has no diplomatic relations. One short
Asia and the Pacific
coming of the book is that it completely
DONALD ZAGORIA overlooks the difficulties of dealing with
an isolated, totalitarian, and
Pyongyang,
Nuclear Stalinist regime whose messages
Disarming Strangers: Diplomacy paranoid
with North Korea, by leon v. sigal. were easy to misread.
Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1998,321 pp. $29.95. Chinas Transition. by Andrew j.
Written an academic scientist nathan. NewYork: Columbia
by political
and former editorial writer for The New University Press, 1997,313 pp. $27.50.
YorkTimes, this is a sobering tale describing The author has an easy time dismissing
how close the United States came to war those who argue that China is not
with North Korea in 1994 before Jimmy culturally capable of democracy. Taiwan
Carter's visit to
Pyongyang broke the ice demonstrates the fallacy of such a con
and laid the groundwork for Assistant tention. And he also convincingly argues
Secretary of State Robert Gallucci's that the Chinese legacy of authoritarian
work. The rule does not bar a democratic transition.
extraordinary diplomatic

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FOREIGN AFFAIRS-Volume 77No. 3

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