Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World » (Unabridged)

Born in Iran, Vali Nasr is a professor of international relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University, an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a senior fellow of The Dubai Initiative at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. His book The Shia Revival" was a New York Times" bestseller. He has contributed to The" New York Times", The" Washington Post", and Time" and appeared on Anderson Cooper 360", The Situation Room", Fareed Zakaria GPS", The Today Show", and Charlie Rose".

Vali Nasr, the author of the New York Times bestseller The Shia Revival, offers a dissection of the problem the West faces with Iran and reveals how, by building strong ties to the new, pragmatic business class that is emerging in Iran, the West can pull the rug of power out from under the extremist mullahs and forge strong new alliances in the region.

The New York Times - Michael J. Totten

…outstanding…Nasr brilliantly narrates the tortured histories of the middle classes in Pakistan and Iran, torn between secular dictators like Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and Gen. Pervez Musharraf on one side, and the Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Republic and the Taliban on the other. The road to a new Middle East, where Turkey is the norm rather than the exception, will be a long and perilous one. Even so, Forces of Fortune is as hopeful as it is sobering, and Nasr makes a convincing case for optimism tempered with caution and patience.

Ch. 1 The power of commerce 1

Ch. 2 The world according to Dubai 28

Ch. 3 Iran's predicament 50

Ch. 4 The tragic failures of secularism 85

Ch. 5 The great Islamic Revolution 116

Ch. 6 The true course of fundamentalism 145

Ch. 7 The prophets of change 176

Ch. 8 Pakistan's horror and hope 203

Ch. 9 The Turkish model 232

Ch. 10 Winning the future 252

Notes 265

Acknowledgments 293

Index 295