How we can repair the damage of the disastrous foreign policy of the last eight years, and forge ahead on a path of peace and prosperity.

With clarity and concision, Juan Cole disentangles the key foreign policy issues that America is grappling with today—from our dependence on Middle East petroleum to the promotion of Islamophobia by the American right—and delivers his informed advice on the best way forward.

A noted historian of the Middle East and a celebrated blogger, Cole has a unique ability to take the true Muslim perspective into account when looking at East-West relations, making well-rounded and prescient insights as he suggests a course of action on fundamental issues like religion, oil, war, and peace.

Cole argues that:

• Al-Qaeda is not a mass movement like fascism or communism but rather a small political cult like the American far-right circles that produced Timothy McVeigh.

• The Muslim world is not a new Soviet Bloc—it is full of close allies or potential allies.

• There can be no such thing as American energy independence; we will need Islamic oil to survive as a superpower into the next century.

• Iran is not an implacable enemy of the United States—it can and should be fruitfully engaged, which is a necessary step for American energy security since Tehran can play the spoiler in the strategic Persian Gulf.

• America's best hope in Iraq is careful, deliberate military disengagement, and not immediate withdrawal or a century-long military presence.

With substantive recommendations for the current administration on how to move forward in key countries such as Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, Engaging the Muslim World reveals how we can repair the damage of the disastrous foreign policy of the last eight years and forge ahead on a path of peace and prosperity.

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