By Dr. James Zogby

Foreign Policy

This book brings together nearly a decade of Zogby Research Services (ZRS) public opinion polling in Arab countries, Turkey, and Iran—a period of great tumult across the Middle East and North Africa. Through polling, ZRS gives people a chance to speak for themselves—people who are often “spoken for” by governments or elites who think they know what the “local” people think, or even what they should think. The danger of not listening is most acutely illustrated by the series of near-blind decisions that preceded and accompanied the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, but also rears its head in international decisions and actions in many Middle Eastern arenas, from the Israel-Palestine conflict to the Russian intervention in Syria. International policymaking toward the Middle East, while it considers matters of energy, security, trade, and the like, must always keep in view—front and center—the opinions and priorities of the people concerned.