'This is a masterfully produced collection of richly researched essays on one of the Middle East's hottest topics. With the sectarian card now played, even in the richest of oil monarchies, has Pandora's Box been opened up?'
Christopher Davidson, author of After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies
'A timely contribution to understanding sectarianism on ... Read moreboth sides of the Persian Gulf. The contributors are well-established historians and social scientists who offer nuanced interpretations of a malaise, at once contemporary and ancient, which threatens to redraw the region's political map. The result is an erudite exploration of the meaning of sectarianism in the context of old nations, and in newly forged ones - weaving local political contexts with transnational connections and outside interventions - which all seem to have escalated sectarian divides against a background of negotiated and fluid identities. The book paints a compelling picture of past and present coexistence and conflict.'
Madawi Al-Rasheed, Visiting Professor at the Middle East Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science
'This superb collection of essays breaks new ground in the study of the politics of sectarian identity in the Gulf. Integrating country case-studies with wider regional developments, the authors analyse the roots of - and the upsurge in - ethnic and sectarian conflict across the region. This book should be required reading for students and practitioners looking to understand the forces reshaping much of the Middle East and framing recent policy responses to the Arab Spring.'
Kristian Coates-Ulrichsen, author of Insecure Gulf: The End of Certainty and the Transition to the Post-Oil Era
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