Kicking the Hornets Nest, Daniel E Zoughbie
Kicking the Hornets Nest, Daniel E Zoughbie
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Kicking the Hornet's Nest
U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump

Author: Daniel E Zoughbie

Narrator: Ali Andre Ali

Unabridged: 12 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/07/2025


Synopsis

The compelling, groundbreaking investigation of how the choices of twelve US presidents, from Truman to Trump, have fueled turbulence and turmoil in the Middle East. And the one president who chose a better way.

Kicking the Hornet’s Nest is a riveting exploration of how twelve US presidents have shaped the Middle East, often unleashing instability and conflict along the way. It is also the story of one US president who successfully charted a better course. From Truman to Trump, Daniel Zoughbie meticulously unpacks the decisions that have set the stage for today’s unrest. But this book is more than just a history lesson; it’s a sharp analysis of presidential decision-making and its far-reaching consequences.

Today, the Middle East stands as a volatile landscape, more tumultuous than at any time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Zoughbie paints a vivid picture of how nearly every major nation-state in the Middle East and North Africa has grappled with existential crises in the recent years, paving the way for terrorist groups to threaten national sovereignty and for local conflicts to destabilize world order.

Drawing on a vast array of primary sources and interviews with world leaders, the narrative explores pressing issues like nuclear proliferation, genocide, and nationalist conflicts fueled by sectarian fervor that have triggered global refugee waves. Kicking the Hornet’s Nest is an eye-opening study of US presidential decision-making and foreign policy. With compassion and insight, Zoughbie reveals the essential information necessary for anyone seeking to understand eight decades of US foreign policy and its profound impact on billions of lives worldwide.

About Daniel E Zoughbie

Daniel E. Zoughbie is a complex-systems scientist, a historian, and an expert on presidential decision-making. He is associate project scientist at the Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley; a faculty affiliate of the UCSF/UCB Center for Global Health Delivery, Diplomacy, and Economics; and a faculty affiliate at the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge. He is also principal investigator of the Middle East and North Africa Diplomacy, Development, and Defense Initiative and author of Indecision Points: George W. Bush and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (MIT Press, 2014). His award-winning research has been published in journals such as PLOS MedicinePLOS Complex SystemsMayo Clinic ProceedingsJAIDS, and Social Science and Medicine. Zoughbie has been appointed to positions at Georgetown University, Stanford University, Harvard University, University of Bologna, University College Dublin, University of Athens, and Campus Bio Medico University of Rome. Zoughbie graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley. He studied at Oxford on a Marshall Scholarship and completed his doctorate, also at Oxford, as a Weidenfeld Scholar.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kadin on November 18, 2025

Points deducted for some easily checkable mistakes (like the fact that Truman and Eisenhower were from Missouri and Texas, respectively, not Kansas). But in general I thought it was a pretty good surface look at the topic at hand. Zoughbie doesn't pull punches and he doesn't seem to be biased toward......more

Goodreads review by Lili on December 11, 2025

I've read about half of it so far and found it incredibly insightful. This book brilliantly illustrates the patterns of US involvement in the region over the past few decades and their consequences. While some sections are quite detailed in their historical and political intricacies, I appreciate ho......more

Goodreads review by Jaylani on November 19, 2025

Too bad, the author didn't mention Joe Biden and his foreign policy in the Middle East.......more