International society and the Middle East

"This book is the first to apply ideas about international and world society to the Middle East. It brings together a distinguished set of theorists and Middle East experts who combine their knowledge to provide a fresh view of this troubled but important region. For those interested in the Middle East, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the region's history and how its own traditions have mixed, often uncomfortably, with the political structures imposed by the expansion of Western international society. For International Relations theorists it offers a pathbreaking application of the English school's central ideas at the regional level. It shows both the problems and the opportunities of thinking about international and world society in a regional context, and uses the insights from that to cast new light on what it means to talk about international society at the global level."--Jacket.