In the 1920s, hard-line Zionists developed the doctrine of the 'Iron Wall': negotiations with the Arabs must always be from a position of military strength, and only when sufficiently strong Israel would be able to make peace with her Arab neighbours. This book focuses on Israeli foreign policy.

Avi Shlaim was born in Baghdad and grew up in Israel. He is now a Professor of International Relations at St Antony's College, Oxford. His previous books include Collusion Across the Jordan (winner of the 1998 Political Studies Association's W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize); The Politics of Partition; War and Peace in the Middle East; Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World ('A milestone in modern scholarship of the Middle East' Edward Said); and Lion of Jordan.