Book Review: Evolving security dynamic in West Asia and India?s challenges

The book has been neatly divided into three sections viz. The Super Power Dynamic; Intra-Regional Dynamic ; and India?s West Asian Quest.As the controversy over the disrespect to Islam and the Holy Prophet by some errant individuals of the Indian ruling party raged across West Asia , I was happy to see the  book edited by veteran diplomat and West Asia expert Ambassador Anil Trigunayat underscoring the critical importance of the WANA region for India and the world . Amb Trigunayat has spent nearly two thirds of his diplomatic career dealing with the Middle East and Africa and is currently leading the West Asia Experts Group at the Vivekananda International Foundation.  The book is rightly titled as ? Evolving Security Dynamic in West Asia and India?s Challenges ?. A timely interlude to introspect.West Asia or the Middle East is an extended neighborhood for India and has always figured prominently in global geopolitical games. For India it has a unique strategic importance due to energy security, food and fertilizer security, Diaspora security and maritime security of sea and trading lanes including piracy and terrorism. With the geo economic pivot moving towards the South and the Indo-Pacific region it has acquired even greater strategic significance in the Indian Ocean Region.Unfortunately ,West Asia continues to remain in a churn festered by several hot spots including Libya, Syria , Yemen and Iraq as Arab Spring 2.0 straddles across the region forcing socio economic reforms  . The Middle East Process remains defunct as the Israel-Palestine conflict remains on the brink. Region also continues to suffer from the geopolitical, geo economic and geo religious contestations among major powers like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Egypt and Iran. Qatar has emerged as a new ?Go To? country.Due to perceived nonchalance and withdrawal of the USA, which was its sole security guarantor, the regional majors have begun to look for some modus vivendi among th