title: Perilous Power: The Middle East & U.S. Foreign Policy: Dialogues on Terror, Democracy, War, and Justice
author:  Noam Chomsky 
description: This intriguing series of conversations between like-minded peers about America in the Middle East pairs dissident intellectual Chomsky with Achcar, who is less well known for critiques of U.S. foreign policy (<I>Clash of Barbarisms</I>). Drawing on deep historical background, they deconstruct Western assumptions about international politics: "Every state you can think of is based on violence, repression... the state system itself has no inherent legitimacy." While refreshingly careful to note when their conclusions aren't backed by rigorous documentation, both make broad assumptions about human behavior, while easily disregarding contradictions. For example they rely on opinion polls to indicate the desires of a given people (as opposed to the ruling elite), but reject the once-broad Palestinian support of the Oslo Peace Accords, for instance, because, as Chomsky says, the Palestinians "were just totally deluded." Similarly, they give little weight to nonrational influences&mdash;religiosity, fear&mdash;where these almost certainly played a key role in forming public opinion, such as in Arab disillusionment with secular nationalism or Israeli presumptions of anti-Semitism. Particularly in Chomsky's case, this can extend to an unfortunate contempt for those with whom he disagrees. Both men raise vital questions, but some readers may be alienated by the authors' often dismissive manner. <I>(Nov.)</I> <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: TOWARDS 
  A 
  NEW 
  COLD 
  ESSAYS ON THE CURRENT CRISIS 
  AND HOW WE GOT THERE 
  
  ALSO BY NOAM CHOMSKY 
  AMERICAN POWER AND THE NEW MANDARINS 
  AT WAR WITH ASIA: 
  Essays on Indochina 
  PROBLEMS OF KNOWLEDGE AND FREEDOM: 
  The Russell Lectures 
  FOR REASONS OF STATE 
  PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST? 
  Reflections on Justice and Nationhood 
  REFLECT IONS ON LANGUAGE 
  LANGUAGE AND RESPONSIBILITY 
  
  TOWARDS 
  A 
  NEW 
  COLD 
  ESSAYS ON THE CURRENT CRISIS 
  AND HOW WE GOT THERE 
  NOAM CHOMSKY 
  -
  PANTHEON BOOKS NEW YORK 
  
  Copyright © 1973, 19j5, 1978, 1979, 1<}8o, 1981, 1982 by J. Leonard Schatz, Trustee of 
  Chomsky Children's Trust # 2 
  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. 
  Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 
  New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, 
  Toronto. 
  Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 
  Chomsky, Noam. 
  Towards a new cold war. 
  Includes bibliographical references and ind