False Prophets British Leaders' Fateful Fascination with the Middle East from Suez to Syria

'Fascinating' Guardian, 'Book of the Day' 'A truly masterly book... A tour de force that will be read for a very long time.' Peter Hennessy Selected by the New Statesman as an essential read for 2022 Britain shaped the modern Middle East through the lines that it drew in the sand after the First World War and through the League of Nations mandates over the fledgling states that followed. Less than forty years later, the Suez crisis dealt a fatal blow to Britain's standing in the Middle East and is often represented as the final throes of British imperialism. However, as this insightful and compelling new book reveals, successive prime ministers have all sought to extend British influence in the Middle East and their actions have often led to a disastrous outcome. While Anthony Eden and Tony Blair are the two most prominent examples of prime ministers whose reputations have been ruined by their interventions in the region, they were not alone in taking significant risks in deploying British forces to the Middle East. There was an unspoken assumption that Britain could help solve its problems, even if only for the reason that British imperialism had created the problems in the first place. Drawing these threads together, Nigel Ashton explores the reasons why British leaders have been unable to resist returning to the mire of the Middle East, while highlighting the misconceptions about the region that have helped shape their interventions, and the legacy of history that has fuelled their pride and arrogance. Ultimately, he shows how their fears and insecurities made them into false prophets who conjured existential threats out of the sands of the Middle East.

Nigel Ashton is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a specialist in the modern politics of the Middle East. He is the author of King Hussein of Jordan; Kennedy, Macmillan and the Cold War; and Eisenhower, Macmillan and the Problem of Nasser.

Map Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: The Nasser Threat Anthony Eden: Suezcide of a Statesman Macmillan’ s Hot Pursuit of Nasser Douglas-Home’ s War in Yemen Part II: War, Peace and Oil A Tale of Two Kisses: Harold Wilson, George Brown and the Middle East Heath’ s Day of Atonement Callaghan’ s ‘ Local Terrorist Made Good’ Arms and the Woman: Margaret Thatcher and the Middle East Part III: The Iraqi Wars and Their Aftermath Major’ s Safe Haven The Next Stage of Evil: Tony Blair and the Middle East In Blair’ s Shadow: Gordon Brown and the Middle East Cameron and the Arab Spring Conclusion Endnotes Select Bibliography List of Illustrations Index