Kim Ghattas Knihy

Black Wave is a paradigm-shifting recasting of the modern history of the Middle East, telling the largely unexplored story of the rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran--a rivalry born out of the sparks of the 1979 Iranian revolution--that has dramatically transformed the culture, identity, and collective memory of millions of Muslims over four decades. Kim Ghattas follows everyday citizens whose lives have been affected by the geopolitical drama.Most Americans assume that extremism, Sunni-Shia antagonism, and anti-Americanism have always existed in the Middle East, but prior to 1979, Saudi Arabia and Iran were working allies. It was only after that year--a remarkable turning point--that Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia began to use religion as a tool in their competition for dominance in the region, igniting the culture wars that led to the 1991 American invasion of Iraq, the September 11th terrorist attacks, and the rise of ISIS.Ghattas shows how Saudi Arabia and Iran went from allies against the threat of communism from Russia, with major roles in the US anti-Soviet strategy, to mortal enemies that use religious conservatism to incite division and unrest from Egypt to Pakistan.

Written with the full cooperation of Hillary Clinton and her staff, The Secretary is the first book of its kind: a detailed look at an intensely private woman - arguably the most powerful woman in the world - from an author with both an insider and a global perspective. The Secretary tells the story of Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State: from the first days of the Obama administration, to the drama of Wikileaks, to the "Arab Spring" uprisings, the killing of Osama bin Laden, and the standoff with Iran. Though Ghattas eyes, we see Clinton under the intense professional spotlight commanded by the world's chief diplomat, but also in the softer lighting of the more personal nuances of foreign relations - cheerfully boarding her plane at 5 AM after no sleep, committing an embarrassing blunder while going off-script at an Israeli press conference, handily working out some limo ride diplomacy between the Turks and the Armenians. Viewed through Ghattas vantage point as a half-Dutch, half-Lebanese citizen who grew up in the crossfire of the Lebanon civil war - and her personal quest to understand America's place in a rapidly changing global landscape - the book offers a close-up of diplomacy at the highest level while seeking to answer pivotal questions about the United States. Is America still the global superpower? If not, who or what will replace it, and what will it mean for America and the world?