A Brookings Institution Press and EU Institute for Security Studies publication

The greater Middle East region is beset by a crescent of crises, stretching from Pakistan through Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Together, these five crises pose the most pressing security challenges faced by the United States and its European allies—ranging from terrorism and weapons proliferation to the rise of fundamentalism and the lack of democracy. Until now, Europe and the United States have approached these issues (indeed, the Middle East as a whole) in differing ways, with little effective coordination of policy. In fact, how best to deal with the greater Middle East has emerged as one of the most contentious issues in U.S.-European relations. The need for a common approach to the region is more evident than ever.

This book brings together some of Europe and America's leading scholars and practitioners in an effort to develop a common approach to resolving the five major crises in the region. European and American authors provide succinct and fact-filled overviews of the different crises, describe U.S. and European perspectives on the way forward, and suggest ways in which the United States and Europe can better cooperate. In the conclusion, the editors synthesize the different suggestions into a roadmap for U.S.-European cooperation for addressing the challenges of the Greater Middle East in the years ahead.

Contributors include Stephen Cohen (Brookings Institution), James Dobbins (RAND), Toby Dodge (University of London), Martin Indyk (Saban Center at Brookings), Kenneth Pollack (Saban Center at Brookings), Jean-Luc Racine (Center for the Study of India and South Asia), Barnett Rubin (New York University), Yezid Sayigh (University of Cambridge), and Bruno Tertrais (Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique).

"The collection as a whole is a usefull survey of several Southwest Asian countries in a difficult, although largely self-inflicted, political environment. Recommended." —F. L. Mokhtari, National Defense University, Choice, 12/1/2006

"This is a timely and important American-European collaboration, dealing with some of the Atlantic alliance's toughest issues, and doing so with expertise, savvy, and originality." —Bruce W. Jentleson, Duke University

"In an age of too many books, and too many essays, this is a rare bird--a useful, worthwhile, and interesting collection of articles on an important topic." —William Kristol, The Weekly Standard

" Crescent of Crisis is a groundbreaking attempt to devise a truly joint U.S.-European strategy towards the world's number one trouble spot. No better team could have been put together for this purpose." —Francois Heisbourg, Fondation pour la Recherche Strategique, Paris

Ivo H. Daalder is U.S. Ambassador to NATO. Previously, he was a senior fellow in Foreign Policy Studies and the Sydney Stein Jr. Chair in International Security at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., USA. He is the coauthor, with James M. Lindsay, of America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy (Brookings, 2003) and the coauthor of Winning Ugly: NATO's War to Save Kosovo (Brookings, 2001), written with Michael E. O'Hanlon. Nicole Gnesotto is the vice president of Notre Europe, Paris, France. Previously, she was director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies. She has served as deputy head of the French Foreign Ministry's Centre d'Analyse et de Prevision and is the author of many publications on strategic issues and European security, in particular. Philip H. Gordon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former director for European Affairs at the National Security Council. His books include Winning the Right War: The Path to Security for Americaand the World (Times Books, 2007) and Allies at War: America, Europe, and the Crisis over Iraq (McGraw Hill, 2004).