Kicking the Hornet's Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump

The compelling, groundbreaking investigation of how the choices of twelve US presidents, from Truman to Trump, have fueled turbulence and turmoil in the Middle East. And the one president who chose a better way.

Kicking the Hornet's Nest is a riveting exploration of how twelve US presidents have shaped the Middle East, often unleashing instability and conflict along the way. It is also the story of one US president who successfully charted a better course. From Truman to Trump, Daniel Zoughbie meticulously unpacks the decisions that have set the stage for today's unrest. But this book is more than just a history lesson; it's a sharp analysis of presidential decision-making and its far-reaching consequences.

Today, the Middle East stands as a volatile landscape, more tumultuous than at any time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Zoughbie paints a vivid picture of how nearly every major nation-state in the Middle East and North Africa has grappled with existential crises in the recent years, paving the way for terrorist groups to threaten national sovereignty and for local conflicts to destabilize world order.

Drawing on a vast array of primary sources and interviews with world leaders, the narrative explores pressing issues like nuclear proliferation, genocide, and nationalist conflicts fueled by sectarian fervor that have triggered global refugee waves. Kicking the Hornet's Nest is an eye-opening study of US presidential decision-making and foreign policy. With compassion and insight, Zoughbie reveals the essential information necessary for anyone seeking to understand eight decades of US foreign policy and its profound impact on billions of lives worldwide.

Author: Daniel E. Zoughbie
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 10/07/2025
Pages: 432
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.28lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.99d
ISBN: 9781668085226


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2025

About the Author
Daniel E. Zoughbie is a complex-systems scientist, a historian, and an expert on presidential decision-making. He is associate project scientist at the Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley; a faculty affiliate of the UCSF/UCB Center for Global Health Delivery, Diplomacy, and Economics; and a faculty affiliate at the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge. He is also principal investigator of the Middle East and North Africa Diplomacy, Development, and Defense Initiative and author of Indecision Points: George W. Bush and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (MIT Press, 2014). His award-winning research has been published in journals such as PLOS Medicine, PLOS Complex Systems, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, JAIDS, and Social Science and Medicine. Zoughbie has been appointed to positions at Georgetown University, Stanford University, Harvard University, University of Bologna, University College Dublin, University of Athens, and Campus Bio Medico University of Rome. Zoughbie graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley. He studied at Oxford on a Marshall Scholarship and completed his doctorate, also at Oxford, as a Weidenfeld Scholar.