Praha: Karohnum, 2001. 216 s. ^*

(c) 2002

Eduard Gombar, a well-known Czech expert on the problems of modern and contemporary history of the countries of the Near and Middle East, an employee of the Institute of the Middle East and Africa at the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles University in Prague, is the author of one of the most fundamental works for Czech Oriental studies in recent years - "New History of Muslim Countries". He also works extensively and successfully in the field of studying the internal development of the countries of the Near and Middle East regions, their foreign policy, as well as the role that they play in the modern world, primarily in regional geopolitics. The author pays no less attention to the issues of economic development and cooperation of the countries of this region among themselves, on the one hand, with the Czech Republic and other Eastern European states, on the other.

The reviewed work is devoted to three states of the Muslim world-Syria, Libya and Iran. For E. Gombar's Western European colleagues, these countries are associated with many myths that often determine outdated approaches to their research.

The author focuses mainly on the internal changes taking place in these countries and coinciding with a profound transformation of the entire system of international relations. The analysis proposed by E. Gombar starts from a really productive idea, the essence of which is that any attempt to study the intra-Syrian, intra-Libyan or intra-Iranian situation cannot be effective without taking into account the totality of factors of international life.

For Czech Oriental studies and national political science, the problem of "centers of economic and political power" developed by E. Gombar in each region is of fundamental importance.

^{Gombar E.} * Dramatic crescent. Syria, Libya and Iran are in the process of change. Prague: Karolinum Publ., 2001, 216 p.

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of the three States he analyzed. This applies primarily to the first chapter of the monograph - "Syria during the reign of the Assad clan", in which the formation and activities of the local political elite occupy almost a leading place. As you know, the emergence of the Syrian state was determined mainly by the actions of the former power - the mandate holder-France. In the future, Syria faced the need to overcome serious centrifugal tendencies that complicated its position as a single centralized state. One of the ways to overcome it was a rigid "power pyramid", the process of formation of which after the Baathist coup in March 1963 E. Gombar and analyzes, considering several levels of its power: the power of the president, the powers of elite military and security structures, the functions of the ruling Party of the Arab socialist renaissance, as well as the government, parliament and mass socio-political organizations.

The theme of the Syrian "power pyramid" is also important for other sections of the book. This is due to the fact that political power in Eastern countries is traditionally based on a complex system of unwritten client relations that create a real vertical of power. We are talking, of course, not only about Syria, but also about Libya and Iran. If the Syrian power vertical has existed for almost 40 years, then similar structures in Iran and Libya are younger (20 and 30 years old, respectively). Their relative youth is also the reason for their relative fragility in terms of the need to maintain a balance between different centers of political and economic influence in the country. The promotion of a "strong personality" - a president or leader - to the top of the "power pyramid" in all three countries must necessarily be accompanied, in the author's opinion, by his support "either by military circles, or by intelligence and security structures, as is usually the case in Arab countries, or by those strata of society that perform security functions in it." moral and ideological foundations, as is clear from the experience of Iran " (p. 8).

As E. Gombar writes in the chapter "Libya under Gaddafi", this country has a " classic authoritarian regime based on Arab nationalism, Islam and local traditions tinged with strong clientelism." At the same time, the basis of the regime is an alliance of several clans, among which the Gaddafi clan plays a leading role, and natives of them occupy key positions in the army environment and in the state security apparatus (p.84). The author devotes a considerable place in the monograph to the analysis of the main ideological justification of the current system of power in Libya - the "Green Book" of M. Gaddafi. The theory of the jamahiriyah expounded in this work exists, according to E. Gombara, "in parallel" with the already established structures of power (p. 88). At the same time, E. Gombar considers the processes associated with the "green perestroika" that began in Libya in the late 1980s as a possible prologue to preserving the foundations of the "power pyramid" after the end of Gaddafi's rule, as well as a means to bring the country out of the situation of geopolitical marginality. However, the randomness and haphazardness of the implementation of the "green perestroika" determined its ultimate failure. According to the author, it is not possible to make any reasonable forecast about how the change of power will take place in this country, whether there will be an alternative to the existing regime or whether it will be able to undergo a serious internal transformation.

E. Gombar believes that the answer to the question of whether the urban population will support the current Libyan regime will depend on how much it manages to preserve the modern system of social benefits. Although rural support for the regime is exaggerated, there is no serious secular or civil opposition in the country, with leading representatives in exile. True, opposition sentiments are observed in the army environment, and they are also characteristic of Islamists. In other words, with the end of Gaddafi's rule, the regime he created may face serious challenges (pp. 90-91).

The content of the chapter "Iranian Theocracy" is mainly focused on the situation that developed in this country after the death of Khomeini (naturally, to analyze the processes that began in Iran in the late 1980s, E. Gombar needed to turn to the system of power that developed in the country after the Islamic revolution). The author compares the internal Iranian political processes with the main directions of the Soviet perestroika carried out by Mikhail Gorbachev. However, he emphasizes that in Iran (as, indeed, in Syria after the death of X. Assad) ivf changes initiated by the new Iranian leaders-

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The nature of the theocratic regime has not been changed by economic policies, domestic and foreign policies. These changes take place within the framework of an existing system, without in any way violating its integrity. Nevertheless, the current president of the country, M. Khatami, is balancing between two main and opposing camps of internal forces - " Islamic conservatives "and" reformers " (pp. 139-140). The question of who will gain the upper hand in the Iranian president's entourage remains open, although, according to the author, the "reformers"have the best chances. As for foreign policy, Iran is gradually emerging from international and regional isolation, relying on the "dialogue of civilizations" doctrine proclaimed by M. Khatami.

In addition to the problem of the internal development of the three countries of the Near and Middle Eastern regions, E. Gombar's work analyzes the issues of their relations with the outside world, primarily with the "key" world power for this region - the United States. This aspect of the problem is considered primarily from the point of view of US (or UN) sanctions against the three countries under consideration, and the degree of their effectiveness. The author is quite critical of the repressive measures imposed or supported by the American side against these countries, pointing out certain differences between the US line and the course of European countries, including Russia.

E. Gombar's work is full of a huge factual material. It contains reference appendices on key figures in local politics and economics, as well as a bibliography of major Western works on issues related to the international situation and the internal evolution of Syria, Libya, and Iran (unfortunately, it lacks modern Russian literature). E. Gombar's monograph can be recommended not only to his Russian academic colleagues, but also to those readers who are interested in the problems of the modern Near and Middle East.

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