| It was a long, long time ago, but I've actually written about Vali Nasr before. He was on TDS in 2006 (a 38-comment thread), and TCR in 2007 (112 comments, woohoo!). Not that it's all about me...
Wikipedia sez:
Vali Reza Nasr is an Iranian-American academic and scholar, as well as Professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University.
An expert in contemporary Middle Eastern affairs and Islam and politics, in January, 2006, Nasr was named the Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think-tank focusing on foreign policy. He is also a Senior Fellow with The Dubai Initiative, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He was named Carnegie Scholar in 2006.
The Wall Street Journal reported on February 9, 2009, that Richard Holbrooke has hired Nasr to advise the Obama Administration on US-Iran relations.
His latest book is Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World. I didn't find many substantial mentions -- a BusinessWeek review and an NPR interview (with transcript) is all I got -- but Barnes & Noble has the industry reviews, and Amazon has some reviews and an excerpt. Here's Publisher's Weekly:
Nasr (The Shia Revival) offers a fresh look at the future of religious extremism in the Middle East, suggesting that "the great battle... for the soul of the region will be fought not over religion, but over business and capitalism." He posits that a rising middle class—seen most dramatically in Dubai, but a force across the whole Muslim world—is far more interested in economic success than in fervent religiosity, even as many bring a distinctly Muslim approach to the business they do. He points out that while the Reformation created the modern world, it wasn't that era's "intolerant faith" that made the transformation but rather "trade and commerce," adding that "values gain currency when they serve the economic and social interests of people." His in-depth analysis of the failures of various governments to provide for their people, as well as special focus on what is working in Turkey, and what is crippling Pakistan, helps drive his thesis home. Nasr's analysis can't help being somewhat hobbled by the fact that it depends heavily on the shifting sands of history-in-the-making, but his approach is sensible, well-argued and deserves close attention.
And here's Library Journal, via B&N:
In recent years, much of the discussion about the Muslim world has focused on the role of Islam in politics, especially the rise of extremist groups that invoke religious doctrine to justify their actions. In this informative book, Middle East expert Nasr (international relations, Fletcher Sch. of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts Univ.; The Shia Revival) challenges our commonly held assumptions about the dynamics of the contemporary Middle East. Using a language accessible to nonspecialists and relying on examples from countries ranging from Iran to Turkey and Pakistan, he demonstrates that there is a commercial revolution in the Muslim world fueled by the emergence of dynamic and upwardly mobile middle-class entrepreneurs and reformers who wish to develop their countries and enjoy the amenities of modern life. It is this "critical mass," he says, that will define the contours of Middle Eastern politics and the broader Muslim world and not the marginal extremists that have dominated foreign news coverage of the region. VERDICT This book should be read by all concerned citizens and policymakers in the West.—Nader Entessar, Univ. of South Alabama, Mobile
Expect substance. |
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