Modern Conflict in the Greater Middle East. Edited by Spencer C. Tucker. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2017. 420 p. $94.00 (ISBN: 978-1-4408-4360-0). E-book available (978-1-4408-4361-7), call for pricing.

Modern Conflict in the Greater Middle East, edited by Spencer C. Tucker, dates modern conflicts between and among twenty-two countries from the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire beginning in 1918 to when the book went to press in 2016, with no end in sight for the civil war in Syria, much less for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Linked by religious and cultural affinities, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the North African countries of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia are included as part of a lately considered greater Middle East, as are Cyprus, Iran, and Turkey. A brief overview of the historical events out of which the geopolitical greater Middle East emerged sets the stage for the seemingly intractable modern conflict of the volume’s title.

Modern Conflict in the Greater Middle East is arranged by countries in alphabetical order and follows a consistent format. Preceding each country chapter is a map that shows the location of its major cities and situates the country in relationship to its neighbors. The author or authors of the narrative history that follows are cited at the head of each essay. Their credentials are listed in the “Contributors” section at the end of the volume.

A timeline affords the opportunity to insert additional material as well as to summarize significant events in chronological order, though with less attention paid to the military, political, and biographical details that the prolific Tucker’s six-volume A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East (ABC-CLIO, 2010) contains. Books in the “Further Reading” lists include trade and academic titles, most published between the late 1970s and the mid-2000s. Sidebars and black-and-white photographs accompany some of the country essays. A chronologically arranged section of primary documents with source citations and an index of names and subjects conclude the work.

In addition to the aforementioned A Global Chronology of Conflict, Tucker has edited or authored several other reference works touching on the theme of wars and warfare in the contemporary Middle East, among them the five-volume The Encyclopedia of Middle East Wars: The United States in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq Conflicts (ABC-CLIO, 2010) and the four-volume The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History (ABC-CLIO, 2008). Modern Conflict in the Greater Middle East supplements these two comprehensively focused sets by providing students with an overview of the background causes and political realities that fuel the besetting strife and discord, internal and external, afflicting a grouping of geographically situated countries labeled together as “the greater Middle East.” Coverage of the history, culture, society, religion, politics, organizations, and personalities that does not dwell exclusively on the region’s persistent turmoil is better addressed by the four-volume second edition of Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, edited by Philip Mattar (Macmillan Reference USA, 2004).

Modern Conflict in the Greater Middle East is a vade mecum for students needing an easily accessible guide to modern conflict in the greater Middle Eastern region, its roots, causes, and consequences. As such, Modern Conflict in the Greater Middle East is a suitable addition to reference collections in public libraries, high-school libraries, and college and university libraries.—Sally Moffitt, Bibliographer and Reference Librarian, Langsam Library, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio