Repeatedly in the twentieth century, Britain has been involved in the Middle East greater than any other external power. In his "Britain's War in the Middle East, Strategy and Diplomacy 1936-42", Martin Kolinsky focuses on the whole major issues of the period, presenting for each an illuminating analysis and his research in depth. The issues include:

- British Strategic Policy, 1936-38, - Political Uncertainties in Egypt during the Interwar Period, - Palestine 1936-38: the Reshaping of British Policy, - The Policy of Appeasement : the White Paper on Palestine and Jewish Refugees, - British Strategic Policy, 1939-June 1940, - Defence Issues in Egypt and Palestine, 1939-40, - British Strategic Policy, July 1940-June 1941, - British Intervention in Egyptian Politics, - Wartime Policy towards Palestine,

Britain's War in the Middle East allows the reader to see the making of British foreign policy and to understand it as a process that was shaped by interactions with the countries of the region before and during the first years of the Second World War. As Martin Kolinsky explained in his masterful study of British strategy and diplomacy, in this period, Britain was caught between the contingencies of global warfare and growing nationalist pressures in the Middle East. Indeed, the dominance which Britain established in the Middle East after the great war was seriously challenged during the years 1936-42. In those crucial seven years, Britain's position was confronted by a formidable combination of internal and external threats, arising from new currents of Arab nationalism and from Axis pressures and military operations. The use of a rich collection of original documents and Kolinsky's inspired scholarship makes this book indispensable for historians, researchers and students. It builds and draws on the author's earlier works on both before and after the period in concern ("Britain and the Middle East in the 1930s" and "Demise of the British Empire in the Middle East 1943-55" [co-editor with Michael J. Cohen in these books] and "Law, Order and Riots in Mandatory Palestine, 1928-35") and adds new information to this extraordinarily complex subject.