“You have to understand the Arab mind, the only thing they understand is force- force, pride and saving face,” said Captain Todd Brown, a company commander with the U.S. Fourth Infantry Division, as he stood outside the gates of an Iraqi village in 2003.

From the views of Captain Todd Brown to Sir Edmund Burke of the 18th century and Winston Churchill in the 1920s, western minds continually look at the people of Iraq and the Middle East through the prisms of geography, ethnicity and romanticism. Over the centuries, these views motivated policy decisions that at times led to disastrous consequences for people living in the region.

Priya Satia is Assistant Professor of Modern British History at Stanford University and author of the book Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East. In her book, Priya recounts the tactics of the British intelligence community and how it dealt with the cultural, institutional, and political consequences of their policy choices after World War I.

During this post-war period a growing number of British intelligence agents ventured into the Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire. They were drawn by the twin objectives of securing a land route to India and also finding adventure and intrigue in what they saw as mysterious, ancient lands. The incursion was part of a regime that Priya Satia called Britain’s “Covert Empire”.