The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East

The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East is a book published in 2005 by the English journalist Robert Fisk. The book is based on many of the articles Fisk wrote when he was serving as a correspondent in the Middle East for The Times and The Independent. The book revolves around several key themes regarding the history of the modern Middle East: the Arab–Israeli conflict, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Gulf Wars, the Algerian Civil War, as well as other regional topics such as the Armenian genocide. The Great War for Civilisation is the second book Fisk has written about the Middle East. The first one, Pity the Nation, (Nation Books, 2002) was about the Lebanese Civil War. Fisk's book details his travels to many of the hotspots of the Middle East, such as Iraq and Iran during the Iran–Iraq War, and his numerous interviews with leaders and ordinary people. Fisk also provides much of the historical context to these conflicts. In the book, Fisk criticizes what he perceives as the hypocritical and biased British and United States foreign policy in the Middle East, especially in regard to the Arab–Israeli conflict and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He contends that the leaders of both countries deliberately misled the world about their motivations for invading Iraq in 2003. The name of the book comes from a campaign medal Fisk's father was awarded for his services in the First World War. The aftermath of World War I saw the creation of most of the borders of the modern Middle East, after the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.