Book Workshop: Religion and War in the Middle East

Why don’t Middle Eastern states initiate wars of religion? The question may strike you as odd but, as I will show, Middle East states do not, and have not, launched religiously-motivated wars. Religiously-motivated violence in the Middle East tends to be initiated by non-state actors, such as terror groups, secessionist movements, and national liberation movements. States are often drawn into these conflicts. But when they initiate wars against other states, they do not do so for religious reasons. This book seeks to explain that pattern by surveying a century and a half of Middle East conflicts. I also hope to show that religiously-motivated non-state actors undergo a process of religious moderation when they assume the responsibilities of statehood. Their religious identities do not disappear, but their religious ambitions weaken, are supplemented by nationalist and secular ideological concerns, and their wars take on new motivations and goals.