As the violence of the Middle East has come to America with the September 11 2001 bombings, many Westerners are stunned and confounded by this new form of mayhem that appears to be a feature of Arab societies. This text explains how Arabs are closed in a circle defined by tribal, religious and cultural traditions. Pryce-Jones examines the forces which "drive the Arabs in their dealings with each other and with the West". In the post-war world, he argues, the Arabs reverted to age-old tribal and kinship structures, from which they have been unable to escape. In tribal society, loyalty is extended to close kin and other members of the tribe. The successful nation-state - the model that Westerners understand - generates broader loyalties, but the tribal world has no institutions that have evolved by common consent for the general good. Those who seek power achieve it by plotting secretly and ruthlessly eliminating their rivals.