Book Summary and Reviews of Kicking the Hornet's Nest by Daniel Zoughbie

Kicking the Hornet's Nest by Daniel Zoughbie

Kicking the Hornet's Nest

U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump

by Daniel Zoughbie

  • Published:
  • Oct 2025, 384 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

The compelling, groundbreaking investigation of how the choices of twelve US presidents, from Truman to Trump, have fueled turbulence and turmoil in the Middle East. And the one president who chose a better way.

Kicking the Hornet's Nest is a riveting exploration of how twelve US presidents have shaped the Middle East, often unleashing instability and conflict along the way. It is also the story of one US president who successfully charted a better course. From Truman to Trump, Daniel Zoughbie meticulously unpacks the decisions that have set the stage for today's unrest. But this book is more than just a history lesson; it's a sharp analysis of presidential decision-making and its far-reaching consequences.

Today, the Middle East stands as a volatile landscape, more tumultuous than at any time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Zoughbie paints a vivid picture of how nearly every major nation-state in the Middle East and North Africa has grappled with existential crises in the recent years, paving the way for terrorist groups to threaten national sovereignty and for local conflicts to destabilize world order.

Drawing on a vast array of primary sources and interviews with world leaders, the narrative explores pressing issues like nuclear proliferation, genocide, and nationalist conflicts fueled by sectarian fervor that have triggered global refugee waves. Kicking the Hornet's Nest is an eye-opening study of US presidential decision-making and foreign policy. With compassion and insight, Zoughbie reveals the essential information necessary for anyone seeking to understand eight decades of US foreign policy and its profound impact on billions of lives worldwide.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

" A stimulating, well-researched examination of how postwar U.S. presidential decisions destabilized the Middle East." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"I strongly encourage you to read this thoroughly researched study from Daniel Zoughbie." —Bobby R. Inman, Former Director, National Security Agency and Former Deputy Director, CIA

"This book is a must read for those wanting to understand the complexities involved in Middle East conflicts and the reasons why our policies have failed." —General Anthony Zinni USMC (Retired), Former Commander in Chief CENTCOM, and former US Special Envoy to Israel and the Palestinian Authority

This information about Kicking the Hornet's Nest was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Information

Daniel E. Zoughbie is a complex systems scientist, a historian, and an expert on presidential decision-making. He is associate project scientist at the Institute for International Studies (IIS) at UC Berkeley, a faculty affiliate of the UCSF/UCB Center for Global Health Diplomacy, Delivery, and Economics and a faculty affiliate at the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge. He is also principal investigator of the Middle East and North African Diplomacy, Development, and Defense Initiative (MENA-3D). The recipient of numerous honors and awards, Zoughbie has been appointed to positions at Georgetown University, Stanford University, Harvard University, University of Bologna, University College Dublin, University of Athens, and Campus Bio Medico University of Rome. Dr. Zoughbie graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with highest honors from UC Berkeley. He studied at Oxford on a Marshall Scholarship and completed his doctorate in international relations, also at Oxford, as a Weidenfeld Scholar.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Kicking the Hornet's Nest, try these:

  • The Nazi Conspiracy jacket

    The Nazi Conspiracy

    by Brad Meltzer

    Published 2024

    About this book

    From the New York Times bestselling authors of The First Conspiracy and The Lincoln Conspiracy comes the little-known true story of a Nazi plot to kill FDR, Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill at the height of World War II.

  • The Spymaster of Baghdad jacket

    The Spymaster of Baghdad

    by Margaret Coker

    Published 2022

    About this book

    From the former New York Times bureau chief in Baghdad comes the gripping and heroic story of an elite, top-secret team of unlikely spies who triumphed over ISIS.

  • The Unwinding jacket

    The Unwinding

    by George Packer

    Published 2014

    About this book

    A riveting examination of a nation in crisis, from one of the finest political journalists of our generation.

We have 11 read-alikes for Kicking the Hornet's Nest, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

More History, Current Affairs and Religion

Browse all History, Current Affairs and Religion books

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
When No One Else Will
by Amanda Skenandore
1940s Chicago nurse risks everything at an illegal women’s clinic during a high-profile trial of courage and sisterhood.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    The Jellyfish Problem
    by Tessa Yang
    A marine biologist rescues a Maine island menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish in this inventive debut.
  • Book Jacket
    Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young
    by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
    Son of Weather Underground radicals recounts life on the run and decades of revolutionary struggle.
  • Book Jacket
    Look What You Made Me Do
    by John Lanchester
    A propulsive tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.
Who Said...

I have lost all sense of home, having moved about so much. It means to me now only that place where the books are ...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Q S, S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.