Simon’s sharp sense of irony and incisive writing bring a complex history to life. Grand Delusion explores the motivations, strategies, and shortcomings of each presidential administration from Reagan to today, exposing a web of intertwined events-from Lebanese civil conflict to shifting Iranian domestic politics, Cold War rivalries, and Saudi Arabia’s quest for security to 9/11 and the war on terror-managed by a Washington policy process frequently ruled by wishful thinking and partisan politics.

diplomatic and military energies were ever more fatefully absorbed by the Middle East until the Obama administration and its successors finally sought to disentangle America from the region. Simon begins with the Reagan administration, when American perception of the Middle East shifted from a cluster of faraway and frequently skirmishing nations to a shining, urgent opportunity for America to (in Reagan’s words) “serve the cause of world peace and the future of mankind.” Reagan fired the starting gun on decades of deepening American involvement, but as the global economy grew, bringing an increasing reliance on oil, U.S.

Book excerpt: A longtime American foreign policy insider’s penetrating and definitive reckoning with this country’s involvement in the Middle East-and its bitter end The culmination of almost forty years at the highest levels of policymaking and scholarship, Grand Delusion is Steven Simon’s tour de force, offering a comprehensive and deeply informed account of U.S. This book was released on with total page 357 pages.

Ultimately, this book reveals how all of our fundamental questions stem from a single error, a single unwarranted belief-a single Grand Delusion.īook Synopsis Grand Delusion by : Steven Simonĭownload or read book Grand Delusion written by Steven Simon and published by Penguin. In doing so, he shines new light on the great existential questions-Why is there Something rather than Nothing? What does it mean to exist? What is consciousness? What is the nature of truth?-and does so from an entirely unexpected direction. In The Grand Delusion, bestselling author Steve Hagen drills deeply into the most basic assumptions, strengths, and limitations of religion and belief, philosophy and inquiry, science and technology. Book excerpt: This is a fun, unique book that goes deep into the great mysteries of knowing-and makes it enjoyable. This book was released on with total page 328 pages. Book Synopsis The Grand Delusion by : Steve Hagenĭownload or read book The Grand Delusion written by Steve Hagen and published by Simon and Schuster.

The Grand Delusion by Heath Sommer