The Double Defeat of the Neo-Conservatives: A New Book by Olivier Roy

This week U.S. bookstores (and the American Enterprise Institute) launch the latest phantasmagorias of Michael Ledeen and Norman Podhoretz (mildly dissected by The New Republic's Peter Beinart in the New York Times Book Review). Anglophone readers will have to wait, unfortunately, to read Olivier Roy's Le Croissant et le Chaos, in French bookstores September 12. I have just received an electronic copy from the author and can only hope that it is translated soon.

I haven't finished this 200-page essay yet, so I will just translate an excerpt from the review in Le Monde under the title, "The Double Defeat of the Neo-Conservatives."

The neo-conservatives imposed a comprehensive (totalizing) response to a supposedly totalitarian threat, whereas what was required was implementation of policies adapted to each situation and conflict.

Olivier Roy reaffirms the conviction he has upheld for years: "The vision of a Muslim world unified under the banner of Islam mounting an offensive against the West makes no sense," no less than that of a new "Islamo-fascist" totalitarianism, which has supposedly replaced the totalitarianisms of the 20th century.

This review does not do justice to the subtlety and clarity of Roy's analysis. He shows how the implementation of a policy based on a false image of middle eastern societies self-destructs irretrievably once fantasy meets reality. An example from today's news is the latest "success" in Iraq: arming Saddamist Sunni militias aganist Salafi jihadists (and Shi'a militias) in the name of the civic equality of all citizens of Iraq.

Let's hope this book is available in English soon.