The Last Crusade

Seeing all the commemorations of the First World War centennial, many might ask what relevance such distant struggles can have for the modern world. Why do they matter? But if they look at the world's most dangerous storm centres today - in Iraq and Syria, across the Middle East and South Asia - they will get their answer. In these regions, as in so much of the world, the First World War created our reality.

Out of the political ferment immediately following the war came the most significant modern movements within Islam, including the most alarming forms of Islamist extremism. So did the separatism that eventually gave birth to the Islamic state of Pakistan and the heady new currents transforming Iranian Shi'ism. From this mayhem also emerged what would become the Saudi state, dominating the holy places and rooted in strictly traditional notions of faith.