The Arab world is a mystery to most Britons, and only a minority want to find out more about it. When they consider military intervention in the region, they judge it by its likelihood of successfully bringing peace and stability, and conclude that such efforts have generally failed.

The crisis over Qatar has created deep diplomatic tensions in the Arab world, and they are now playing out onto an international stage. The US is, of course, a hugely significant influence on the region so it is valuable to understand how the disputes have been understood by the American public.

We are living at a time of rising global tensions, with fears of new wars and even nuclear conflict becoming more real than at any moment since the 1970s.