This much needed new edition provides a complete and essential guide to this fast developing, ever changing and often tense region. This book, fully updated for 2024, examines the origins and development of the events which have dominated the headlines for the last seven decades. Covering everything from religion and politics in the aftermath of the Second World War to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, terrorism, war in Iraq and Syria and the extraordinary economic growth of the Gulf states, it will change the way you think about the region and provide balance and clarity.