Our Last Best Chance: A Story of War and Peace

by King Abdullah II of Jordan

Overview

A call for peace by one the longest serving rulers in the Middle East

 

At a time of unprecedented upheaval in the Middle East, King Abdullah II of Jordan is almost unique in enjoying widespread popular support. He is the ultimate modern-day monarch, as comfortable at a business conference as he is at a meeting of the Arab League. In this prescient memoir-cum-manifesto, he makes an urgent plea to push for a solution to the Arab-Israeli crisis. He writes with disarming frankness about his own upbringing and warns of the brewing resentment in the region. A call to arms by the most dynamic young ruler in the Arab world, Our Last Best Chance helps explain the volatile underpinnings of the new Arab awakening.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143120308
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/27/2012
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

King Abdullah II spent his formative years in the United States, where he went to Eaglebrook and Deerfield, and in England, where he trained to be an officer at Sandhurst. A cavalry officer in the Jordanian army, he eventually became commander of the Jordanian Special Forces, a position that allowed him to forge invaluable relationships with intelligence and military offices around the world. The head of the Hashemite family, he is a forty-third generation direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammad. His family ruled the holy city of Mecca for more than eight hundred years and his great-grandfather led the Arab revolt for independence from Ottoman rule.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Part I

1 The Conflict Begins 3

2 The 1967 War 14

3 Dark Clouds over Amman 22

4 Arriving in America 31

Part II

5 Sandhurst 43

6 Qatraneh Nights 50

7 A Secret Mission 56

8 "You Guys Don't Stand a Chance" 64

9 A Royal Wedding 77

10 Lessons in Diplomacy 86

11 Very Special Operations 100

Part III

12 In the Footsteps of a Legend 111

13 Becoming King 130

14 Friends and Neighbors 142

15 Transforming Jordan 155

16 Desert Deerfield 177

Part IV

17 Jerusalem at the Heart of Conflict 187

18 Seeking Peace, Getting War 196

19 War in the Desert 215

20 "We Will Be Greeted as Liberators" 225

Part V

21 My Islam 239

22 Jordan's 9/11 250

23 The Amman Message 257

Part VI

24 The End of an Era 267

25 The Mask Slips 280

26 A New Voice from America 291

27 Fortress Israel or a Fifty-Seven-State Solution? 307

Acknowledgments 329

Index 333

Editorial Reviews

"This worthy addition to that distinctive genre of books written by political leaders still in office is part autobiography, part political history." — Foreign Affairs

From the Publisher