There is perhaps no other part of the world as important to international affairs as the Middle East. This book—part of the Yesterday & Today series from Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective brings to life the vibrant history of today’s politics and culture in the region. The chapters explore the Middle East’s fraught and high-stakes politics, from the Palestinian-Israeli struggle to the defining secular and religious power battles in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. And the book also examines both the tense and essential role of water resources in the region and the core importance of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity in the unstable mix of peoples and cultures.