The Arab World and Western Intelligence - (Intelligence, Surveillance and Secret Warfare) by Dina Rezk (Paperback)

About the Book

Have Western intelligence experts fundamentally failed to understand the dynamics, leaders and culture of the Middle East? Using the most recently declassified documents, interviews and Arabic sources, the book examines seminal case studies to explore how the intelligence agencies in the world have been so notoriously caught off-guard.

Book Synopsis

This book addresses a critical question embedded within a heated debate about American intelligence after 9/11: have Western experts failed in some fundamental way to understand the dynamics, leaders and culture of the Middle East?
Using the most recently declassified documents, interviews and Arabic sources, the book examines seminal case studies culminating in Sadat's dramatic assassination and explores how the most knowledgeable and powerful intelligence agencies in the world have been so notoriously caught off guard in this region.

From the Back Cover

The untold story of Western intelligence in the Middle East This book addresses a critical question embedded within a heated debate about the 'failure' of American intelligence in a post 9/11 age: have Western experts failed in some fundamental way to understand the dynamics, leaders and culture of the Middle East? Using the most recently declassified documents, interviews and Arabic sources, the book examines seminal case studies culminating in Sadat's dramatic assassination and explores whether, how and why the most knowledgeable and powerful intelligence agencies in the world have been so notoriously caught off guard in this region. Dina Rezk is a lecturer in Middle Eastern History at the University of Reading. She was previously a Teaching Fellow in Intelligence and Security at the University of Warwick and completed her doctorate at the University of Cambridge.

Review Quotes

An insightful re-evaluation of American and British engagement with the Middle East between the Suez crisis and the Yom Kippur war and, at a more theoretical level, an important contribution to our understanding of the cultural dimensions of intelligence history.--David Reynolds, University of Cambridge

Dina Rezk's book is an interesting and important study that presents the manner in which Egyptian presidents Nasser and Sadat were read in the West, based upon archival material recently declassified and opened for the scholars' eyes.--Eyal Zisser "Bustan: The Middle East Book Review"

Well researched, thoughtfully and cogently presented, recommended.--Philip C. Shackelford, Library Director, South Arkansas Community College "Journal of Advanced Military Studies"

About the Author

Dina Rezk is Lecturer in Middle Eastern History at the University of Reading. She received her Ph.D from the University of Cambridge in 2013, where she also completed her undergraduate degree, and subsequently spent two years at the Politics Department in Warwick University in September as a Teaching Fellow in Intelligence and Security.