Next Threat

Western perceptions of the Middle East have all too often been simplified. Islamic culture can easily be stereotyped in the Western media and even into this century the orient has been romanticised and mythologised. In The Next Threat, five authors from widely differing backgrounds argue that these perceptions are maintained in the current policies of Western governments and institutions. The collection focuses on the same argument: that we dehumanise whole societies in order that we can hold our own economies together. From 1945 until 1989, the financial and military interests of the Western world were united by the ‘threat’ from the communist East. Now, in the post-Cold War period, the West appears to be offering a perceived rising spectre of Islam as justification for Western military budgets and to legitimise intervention. The Next Threat provides us with a unique interpretation of these Western perceptions of Islam in the modern era.This is the first English language edition and has been considerably updated with additional material

'A sustained and well-researched exposé of crude simplifications and prejudice in public policy debates'

Jochen Hippler is a political scientist and peace researcher based at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He is the former Director of the Transnational Institute (TNI) in Amsterdam, and author of Nation-Building (Pluto, 2005) and The Next Threat (Pluto, 1995). Andrea Lueg is a freelance journalist working on Israeli-Palestinian conflict and women in Islamic societies. She has worked extensively in the West Bank, Pakistan and Afghanistan and is the author, with Jochen Hippler, of Gewalt als Politik [Violent Politics] (1987).