For more than a century successive US and UK governments have sought to thwart nationalist, socialist and pro-democracy movements in the Middle East. Through the Cold War, the ‘War on Terror’ and the present era defined by the Islamic State, the Western powers have repeatedly manipulated the region’s most powerful actors to ensure the security of their own interests and, in doing so, have given rise to religious politics, sectarian war, bloody counter-revolutions and now one of the most br...

The Gulf monarchies (Saudi Arabia and its five smaller neighbours: the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain) have long been governed by highly autocratic and seemingly anachronistic regimes. Yet despite bloody conflicts on their doorsteps, fast-growing populations, and powerful modernising and globalising forces impacting on their largely conservative societies, they have demonstrated remarkable resilience. Obituaries for these traditional monarchies have frequently been ...

The Gulf monarchies (Saudi Arabia and its five smaller neighbours: the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain) have long been governed by highly autocratic and seemingly anachronistic regimes. Yet despite bloody conflicts on their doorsteps, fast-growing populations, and powerful modernising and globalising forces impacting on their largely conservative societies, they have demonstrated remarkable resilience. Obituaries for these traditional monarchies have frequently been ...

The Man Who Snorted The World is the darkly comic tale of Chester, a lost, tired and broken man, whose shut-in world is transformed by a mysterious package from an old friend, the charismatic and crazy Jimmy. Its contents are a letter and a small bag of powder. Failing to heed the warning and resist the temptation, with his life in crisis, he snorts a line of the unknown substance. Its power is beyond his imagining and this one action kick starts a whole chain of events that threaten to de...

This publication characterizes the environmental burden of disease in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), measured by the excess number of deaths and illnesses in the population due to exposure to environmental hazards. The robust methods used in this risk analysis can be applied to any country or region. This publication documents the systematic, multi-step process used to identify environmental priorities and the detailed methods used to quantify the disease burden attributable to each risk....

Admiral of the Ocean Sea is Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison’s classic biography of the greatest sailor of them all, Christopher Columbus. It is written with the insight, energy, and authority that only someone who had himself sailed in Columbus’ path to the New World could muster. Morison undertook this expedition in a 147-foot schooner and a 47-foot ketch, the dimensions of these craft roughly matching those of Columbus’ Santa Maria and Niña. The result is this viv...

The History of English Spelling“Fifty years ago, G. H. Vallins contributed a book on spelling to the Language Library. Since then, there have been several major surveys, and new opportunities to explore the history of English words. The time is therefore ripe for a fresh presentation, and this is what George Davidson has done, building on the huge collection of historical data amassed by Christopher Upward, and giving it narrative shape. I have been waiting for a source-book like t...

Muhammad bin Salman Al-Saud and Muhammad bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the respective princely strongmen of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have torn up the old rules. They have spurred game-changing economic master plans, presided over vast anti-corruption crackdowns, tackled entrenched religious forces, and overseen the mass arrest of critics. In parallel, they also appear to have replaced the old ‘sheikhly’ consensus systems of their predecessors with something more autocratic, more personalistic, and...

The UK Catalysis Hub is a consortium of universities working together on fundamental and applied research to find out how catalysts work and to improve their effectiveness. The contribution of catalysis to manufacturing contributes to almost 40% of global GDP, making development and innovation within the field integral to industry.Modern Developments in Catalysis, Volume 2 provides a review and update of current research and practice on catalysis. Topics range from the treatment of...

Nowhere in the world is university education expanding as rapidly as in the six-member state of the Gulf Cooperation Council. In two generations the region has gone from having the Middle East's least educated population to boasting a younger generation whose educational achievements are approaching Oraginisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) standards. This unique study, with contributions by key decision makers, charts this dramatic development, exploring the challenge...

The UK Catalysis Hub is a consortium of universities working together on fundamental and applied research to find out how catalysts work and to improve their effectiveness. The contribution of catalysis to manufacturing contributes to almost 40% of global GDP, making development and innovation within the field integral to industry.Modern Developments in Catalysis provides a review of current research and practise on catalysis, focussing on five main themes: catalysis design, environmental ...

Our amorous and erotic experiences do not simply bring us pleasure; they shape our very identities, our ways of relating to ourselves, each other and our shared world. This volume challenges some of our most prevalent assumptions relating to identity, the body, monogamy, libido, sexual identity, seduction, fidelity, orgasm, and more. In twelve original and philosophically thought-provoking essays, the authors reflect on the broader meanings of love and sex: what their shifting historical m...