A 'Westphalia' for West Asia

Until there are changes in these two areas, West Asia will remain condemned to further conflict

Towards a Westphalia for the Middle East

Patrick Milton, Michael Axworthy and Brendan Simms

Hurst and Company,

160 pages; Rs 2,686

The Thirty Years’ War began 400 years ago and ended with the “Peace of Westphalia” negotiated between the contending parties over five years. The war involved the major powers of the day — the Holy Roman Empire, France, Spain and Sweden — and the numerous German principalities that were linked to the empire through a series of complex historic agreements and traditions. The war combined contentions emerging from power rivalries, sectarian differences and, following the religious differences after the Reformation, the need