2. Ch. 20-The Shattered Belt The only immutable fact inherent in the term Middle East is that it refers to a central world region. Globalization is allowing this shattered belt to recover its organic wholeness. Arabism and Islamism- are the two faces of globalization in the region today. Arabs will not be left out of Globalization; they are shaping it.
3. Ch. 20 A coherent global Islamism is not materializing. There has indeed been an Islamic awakening, as measured by mosque attendance and the proliferation of Islamist media, political parties, and financial institutions. But this consciousness lacks cohesion. Arab Muslims, like most people, ultimately ascribe greater importance to economic than spiritual ends, making it more likely that Arabism will return as a regional political-cultural movement than that Islam will congeal as a superpower.
4. Ch.24 The Former Iraq Buffer, Black Hole, And Broken Boundary Ever since the American Invasion in 2003 failed to create a unified and democratic state, every faction within Iraq and in each surrounding country is fighting for its own vision, meaning Iraq will cease to exist since no one is fighting in its name. Most Iraqis continue to feel that they are worse off today than under Saddam’s rule. Despite it all, Iraq still cannot be considered part of the third world.
5. Ch.24 It is said that if Arabs had been drawing the maps after World War I, Iraq would never have existed anyway. Today the race is on among the U.S., Iran, and the Sunni powers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria to reshape the region where Iraq once sat at the center. Iraq has been terminated before, and history will do so again.
