In this comprehensive and unique study, Ofer Israeli focuses on six case studies from the Middle East and analyzes the unexpected and unintended consequences of interventions in this region by the United States, Britain, and other Western powers during the Cold War. From his research, he develops a complex causal mechanism, or applied tool, that states can employ when designing and implementing foreign policy - with the aim of reducing the number of conflicts and wars in the world, and especially in the Middle East. In doing so, the book examines the complex effects of international relations concerning a variety of indirect results - intended and unintended - of deliberate human action. These effects may be desirable or undesirable, overt or covert, expected or surprising, predictable but not actually observed, or observed but at the same time neglected or downplayed.

This is a book on one of Buenos Aires's neighborhoods, Villa Crespo, considered by many a Jewish district, and its football team Club Atletico Atlanta. Through the lens of this neighborhood institution, Rein offers an absorbing social history of Jews in Latin America. Since the end of World War II, there has been a conspicuous Jewish presence among the fans, administrators and presidents of the Atlanta football club. For the first immigrant generation, belonging to this club was a way of becoming Argentine. For the next generation, it was a way of maintaining ethnic Jewish identity. Now it is nothing less than a family tradition for third generation Jewish-Argentines to support Atlanta. The book offers a rare window into the rich culture of everyday life in the city of Buenos Aires, created by Jewish immigrants and their descendants.