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Book Review: Other Areas: Badiou's Deleuze

in the Middle East (p. 71). This invasive Western capitalism has been eroding autonomy and local centres of influence in traditional Islamic societies.Western viewpoints suggest that conservative Islam is ill adjusted to the modern world (p. 31), whereas Christianity is highly compatible with both democracy and capitalism. From this perspective 9/11 lacks a singular cause, but is a reaction to gradual Western economic expansion into Islam-dominant regions, often linked mistakenly to a purely anti-Christian or anti-democratic mentality. Furthermore, Rockmore adopts a constructivist approach to understanding history. The author favours an actor model which evaluates events ‘in terms of the intentions and goals motivating human actions’ (p. 53). His explanation of the US reaction to 9/11 is heavily invested in the evangelical Christian and neoconservative influences on President Bush that thrust American forces into at least three wars (Afghanistan, Iraq and the global war on terror), ostensibly in defence of freedom. The final chapter devotes many pages to analysing the Bush administration’s execution of these concurrent wars and the effect that Bush’s personal politics played in defining America’s reputation in the region. However, this book fails to give a full account of the other actor in play, namely Osama bin Laden. Omitting a central figure such as bin Laden from the discussion ultimately weakens our understanding of 9/11 and overlooks important motivating factors and intentions on the part of al-Qa’eda. Rockmore argues convincingly that Western reaction to 9/11 has been flawed and short-sighted in believing that terrorism is a problem solvable through military might. He rightly elevates economic explanatory factors at least on a par with cultural and religious theories to elucidate the tensions building before 9/11, and provides ample evidence to support his claim. Additionally, despite being published only ten years after the September 2001 attacks, this book offers a robust post-9/11 analysis.