Furkan Halit Yolcu

Since the beginning of the 20th century, Western influence in the Persian Gulf has continued to expand; this process has also exposed several challenges from rivals of the United States. The pace of economic development for the oil-rich Gulf States has highlighted divergences in terms of regional politics, as Saudi Arabia’s economic leap provided a platform to claim regional leadership.

Drone usage has been a hotbed of discussion in International Relations and Military Studies for the last decade. Drone warfare itself has been rapidly transforming through a process that started with the implementation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to the battlefield.

The book reviewed here is one of the most beneficial examples of studies made on Foreign Assistance to the Middle East, especially for researchers who are intrigued by the question of whether or not the Arab Uprisings made an impact on the preceding trends in foreign assistance to the region. The book includes ten chapters which deal with the most important aspects of the topic. The most salient case studies seem to be Tunisia and Egypt as the recipient countries with U.S., EU and Turkey having their own chapters in terms of elaborating the debate in these examples. The Gulf Cooperation Council seems to be the structure investing the most in the Middle East before and after the Arab Uprisings and according to Heydemann, this regional assistance dwarfs both U.S. and EU aid together (p. 24). Although the chapters purport to be different from each other, since the focus is recipient countries, some chapters overlap with each other.