'Olivier Roy, perhaps France's leading analyst of Islamic political movements, has been a confidante of leading US neo-conservative strategists since his research on the Afghan resistance in the 1980s, when these same thinkers were working in the administration of President Ronald Reagan to support the mujahidin and bring down the Soviet Union. He now delivers a lucid and decisive dismemberment of the actions of these same neo-conservatives (and their interventionist Republican allies, such as Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney) during the regime of George W. Bush. Roy calmly explains how their comprehensive misunderstanding of the threat posed by the attacks of September 11, combined with their reality-free conception of the capacities of the US government, have needlessly created a disaster. His critique extends further, however, to include most of the shallow critiques deployed by the opposition to these policies. Roy shows how many of the liberal and leftists ideas and programmes about promotion of democracy, civil society, or self-determination are based on kindred illusions. Anyone concerned about how to extricate the US and the world from this disaster should read, re-read, think about, and discuss this book.'

Professor Barnett R. Rubin, New York University

'In this small but powerful book, Olivier Roy has discovered the Archimedean point from which all existing narratives of Muslim politics in the Middle East may be overthrown, namely that the region has no political integrity of its own but is defined rather by its relationship with the West. This has allowed him to write what is perhaps the first combined history of political thought in the West and the Middle East.'

Faisal Devji, New School University, New York