Trump and Xi Jingping summit: How are the United States and China redefining their relationship?

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As tensions over trade, Taiwan, technology, and global influence intensify, the meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping may determine the future balance of power between Washington and Beijing. By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj | Sulaimani, Iraq | 13 May 2026 — Kurdish Policy Analysis "We don't have permanent allies and we don't have permanent enemies, only our interests are permanent, and we have to follow them." – Henry John Temple. The root of the current Strait of Hormuz tensions is not only about shipping routes or oil prices, but also about the final collapse of the historical US concept towards Beijing. However, the 2025 National Security Strategy, released by the White House in November, says this was a historic mistake because China used the assets it accumulated to strengthen itself and compete with the West, not to become their partner. For many years, the United States alone maintained maritime security; The fifth US ship in Manama, Bahrain, worked only to keep o...
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3 Books That Explain the Hidden Logic of Middle Eastern Wars and Conflicts

A curated reading list to understand power, conflict, and geopolitics in the region

By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj, SULAIMANI,  Kurdish Policy Analysis, April 22

I recommend three books that can help readers understand current events, especially the latest war in Iran, and he suggested these. 

A Stranger in Your Own City


By Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, 2024

I think the best way to understand conflict in the Middle East is through the eyes of the people who live there. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad’s memoir, A Stranger in Your Own City, chronicles life in Iraq from the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime through the rise of ISIS. He takes the reader onto Iraqi streets and into backroom meetings with militants as Iraq spirals into chaos and civil war, is stabilized, and then is plunged even deeper into crisis. The book picks apart what Western diplomats and military officers thought they were accomplishing in Iraq while also documenting the rise of the sectarian pathologies and rampant corruption that has plagued Iraqi politics.

A Tale of Love and Darkness



By Amos Oz, 2002

Keeping with the theme of memoir, A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz offers one of the best windows into the formation of Israel in the 1940s and 1950s. Through Oz’s family, the book covers the arc of modern Jewish and Zionist history, and how they converge into a conflict over Palestine following World War II. The book’s range is much wider than the Arab-Israeli conflict. It covers different streams of Zionist ideology, an intimate portrait of a family living in Jerusalem, and the idealism of life on a kibbutz. Yet, this background is essential for understanding the soul of Israel and the origins of its conflicts with its neighbors.

The Mantle of the Prophet


By Roy Mottahedeh, 1985

Finally, The Mantle of the Prophet by Roy Mottahedeh follows the life of a composite Iranian cleric “Ali Hashemi.” It is one of the most insightful books on modern Iran and the social world that produced the Iranian Revolution. The semi-fictionalized ethnographic narrative reads like a novel but is grounded in deep historical research. Mottahedeh wrote the book while he was on the faculty at Princeton in the early 1980s, and the main character, Ali Hashemi, is widely rumored to be based on the current Princeton Near Eastern studies professor, Hossein Modarressi.

These themes are reflected in ongoing regional conflicts analyzed here: https://kurdishpolicyanalysis.blogspot.com/2026/04/meaning-of-war-middle-east-political-analysis.html

Related analysis:

Iran’s evolving geopolitical conflict dynamics:
https://kurdishpolicyanalysis.blogspot.com/2026/04/iran-multi-front-crisis-strait-hormuz-kurds-us-strategy-rojelat-escalation-2026.html

#BookRecommendations #MiddleEast #Iran #Iraq #Geopolitics #ReadingList #WarAnalysis #IsraelPalestine #Politics #MustRead


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