Grand Delusion

The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East

By: Steven Simon

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff, Steven Simon

Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

“A comprehensive, even magisterial review . . . This is strong stuff, but Simon does not flinch.”—Foreign Affairs

A longtime American foreign policy insider’s penetrating and definitive reckoning with this country’s involvement in the Middle East

The culmination of almost forty years at the highest levels of policymaking and scholarship, Grand Delusion is Steven Simon’s tour de force, offering a comprehensive and deeply informed account of U.S. engagement in the Middle East. Simon begins with the Reagan administration, when American perception of the region shifted from a cluster of faraway and frequently skirmishing nations to a shining, urgent opportunity for America to (in Reagan’s words) “serve the cause of world peace and the future of mankind.”

Reagan fired the starting gun on decades of deepening American involvement, but as the global economy grew, bringing an increasing reliance on oil, U.S. diplomatic and military energies were ever more fatefully absorbed by the Middle East. Grand Delusion explores the motivations, strategies, and shortcomings of each presidential administration from Reagan to today, exposing a web of intertwined events—from the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict amid Israeli domestic politics, Cold War rivalries, and Saudi Arabia’s quest for security, to 9/11 and the war on terror—managed by a Washington policy process frequently ruled by wishful thinking and partisan politics.

Simon’s sharp sense of irony and incisive writing brings complex history to life. He illuminates the motives behind America's commitment to Israel; explodes the popular narrative of Desert Storm as a “good war”; and calls out the devastating consequences of our mistakes, particularly for people of the region trapped by the onslaught of American military action and pitiless economic sanctions.

Grand Delusion reveals that this story, while episodically impressive, has too often been tragic and at times dishonorable. As we enter a new era in foreign policy, this is an essential book, a cautionary history that illuminates American's propensity for self-deception and misadventure at a moment when the nation is redefining its engagement with a world in crisis.

©2023 Steven Simon (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Why American foreign policy has been so successful with other democracies in the alliance system across the postwar era, while policy and its execution across the Muslim and developing worlds has been so miserable, is an implicit contrast that this startling policy history portrays. The book provides context for yet another Gaza-Palestinian crisis.”—Financial Times, Reader’s Choice Best Books of the Year

“The author of this critical consideration of four decades of the U.S. government’s dealings in the Middle East has held positions in the State Department and on the National Security Council, across various Administrations . . . embedded with engaging recollections.”—The New Yorker

“A brilliantly written account . . . . At a time when US engagement in the region is declining while that of other actors—Russia and China—is rising, the book is very timely.”—Financial Times

A must read if you want to understand the Middle East

I truly appreciate this book - what a good summary of the history of Middle East relations and an insight of US policy decisions that ignored realities on the ground and lack of understanding of cultural differences.

Frankly, not very good.

Lacking in temperance, filled with narrow minded spite- Steven refuses let his politics step aside even for a moment, and it slowly suffocates the reader.