Christopher M. Davidson

For many decades US and UK governments have tried with various methods to defeat popularist, socialist and pro-democracy movements in the Middle East. Throughout the Cold War, the United States ‘War on Terror' and the terror visited on us by the Islamic State, the Western powers have repeatedly used and manipulated the region's most powerful figures to ensure the security of their own financial and nationalist interests and have given rise to brutal religious based politics, bloody sectarian wars, and now one of the most brutal visions of Islamic extremism ever seen.

Christopher Davidson exposes for us the dark side of our foreign policy which is Western interference in the Middle East. What could be the most shocking for many of us to read in this book today is his statement that US intelligence agencies continue to look at the Islamic State, as a strategic but volatile asset to be wielded against their enemies. Shadow Wars must be read as I feel is clearly shows the defeat of the ‘Arab Spring' as a type of counter revolution pushed by external interventions from the West. The book begins with past type of European Revolutions and ends up with a very convincing analysis of the demise of the Arab Spring. No one is spared in this clear and direct analysis: Arab regimes, popularist movements, the West and Israel are all vicerated here for their responsibility for the suffering of the people of Middle East today.… (mais)