Thoroughly revised and updated, this text presents a comprehensive analysis of the interactions of economic development, state systems, and social actors as factors promoting or blocking change in the Middle East. The third edition closely examines the sometimes profound changes in demography, education, labor markets, urbanization, water and agriculture, and international labor migration in the Middle East in recent years. It considers the effect of rising oil prices on reinforcement of authoritarian governance, refines its assessment of "the Washington Consensus" and the shifting balance of state and market in economic growth and reform, and presents Islamism as a vital force in the region that is nonetheless a vast, diverse social movement with many conflicting participants.