A critical piece of the background is missing in my opinion - a lot of what is going on right now in ME, Central Asia and North Africa (I think that the events

A critical piece of the background is missing in my opinion - a lot of what is going on right now in ME, Central Asia and North Africa (I think that the events in all countries in that regions are one global trans national crisis) was set in motion by the Great Game, the colonial era, the messy unwinding of the Ottoman Empire and the less than stellar ending of the colonial regimes. It has been brewing for a long time.