ABSTRACT
A century on, how little has really changed? This book began with the May 1916 Sykes-Picot Accord and with two doyens of the West (Britain and France) as main architects of the contemporary Middle East – for good and ill. The world and the Middle East still need a strong West, but for a new West to be created and effective, Western governments must return to the fi rst principles of power, policy, strategy-making and statecraft, and thus turn analysis into action. That means reinvesting in the tools of infl uence and effect – diplomacy, intelligence and armed forces. It also means the creation of policy, strategy and structures that can effectively prevent and manage the consequences of catastrophic interdependence and bad globalisation. Above all, it demands the political courage to see the big, dark picture; to tell people the hard, stark truth; and then to act.
