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...

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 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...

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 ...

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....

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 ...

This revealing portrait of the famously wealthy Persian Gulf city investigates the human cost of its miraculous rise to global prominence.In less than two decades, Dubai has transformed itself from an obscure territory of the United Arab Emirates into a global center for business, tourism, and luxury living. With astonishing skyscrapers and tax-free incomes, its rulers have made Dubai into a playground for the global elite while skillfully downplaying its systemic ...

Absence makes the heart grow fonder…doesn’t it? Contains exclusive sneak peek of Claudia’s latest novel A Very Accidental Love Story.What happens when two people decide to take a year off…from each other?Annie and Dan were the perfect couple. But now the not-so-newly weds are feeling more like flatmates than soul mates and wondering where all the fun and fireworks went …When Annie lands her big break in a smash-hit show…that’s heading for the bright lights of Broadw...

The most challenging question today for the citizens of any country in the Gulf region is whether it is heading in the right direction to become a durable, sustainable system, fully supported by its people and capable of being defended from internal and external threats. In The Arab Spring and the Gulf States, Mohamed A. J. Althani, a former minister in the Qatari government, analyses the domestically important areas of demography, security, provision of food and water, and the po...

Discover the woman behind the spectacles in the hilarious, incredibly moving memoir from much loved comedian, writer and presenter Sue Perkins, star of Mel & Sue and The Great British Bake Off'Very funny. Reading her memoir is very like meeting her' Sunday Times'Tight & bright & full of inspiration' Chris Evans, Radio 2When I began writing this book, I went home to see if my mum had kept s...

**FULLY UPDATED THIRD EDITION, NOW WITH NEW POSTSCRIPT BY ALI ANSARI'If you were to read only one book on present-day Iran you could not do better than this' Ervand Abrahamian, Times Higher Education**For some 40 years the Islamic Republic has resisted widespread condemnation, sanctions, and sustained attacks by Iraq in an eight-year war. Many policy-makers today share a weary wish that Iran would somehow just disappear as a problem. But with Iran's continuing comm...

'Leaves you with a smile on your face and hope in your heart' MILLY JOHNSON**Escape this summer with the page-turning new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author'A fantastic, compelling story . . . The feelings on the page are tangible'** 5***** READER REVIEW'Packed with fantastic characters, uncomfortable truths, and flashes of pure comedy. Who could ask for more?' JILL MANSELL________From the outside...