Military Responses to the Arab Uprisings and the Future of Civil-Military Relations in the Middle East: Analysis from Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria. William C. Taylor. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Pp. 252.

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William C. Taylor is a former Assistant Professor of American foreign policy at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He is a renowned expert in Arab military affairs and aims to enlighten his readers about how the militaries of different Arab countries responded to the civil uprisings in 2011. By comparing the military responses in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria, he has sought to shed light on the reasons why the military leadership in each of these countries played omnifarious roles. It is a very important book given the latest developments such as the conferring of a preliminary death sentence to Egyptian President, Mohamed Morsi, and the on-going conflict in Yemen. Furthermore, recent bomb attacks in Tunisia and Saudi Arabia have contributed to chaos in the region, while Syria has become a battleground for competing interests, in particular, between the Gulf monarchies and Iran and its allies. To top it all is the ever increasing threat of the Islamic State which is operating from captured territories in Syria and Iraq, attracting support from Muslims across the world and demanding that all should swear allegiance to its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

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