Timothy Paris examines Winston Churchill's involvement in the struggle for power in a number of Middle Eastern countries between 1920 and 1925. His study traces the development of the Sherifian policy, a policy that was devised by the British.

After an introductory chapter treating generally Britain's war-time Middle Eastern policies and the activities of the Sherifians, the individual cases of Faisal, Abdullah and Husain are considered in separate chapters. With regard to Faisal and Abdullah, the analysis concludes at that point at which Britain made a definitive commitment to Sherifian rule in Iraq and Transjordan. In the final chapter, Britain's policy of supporting Husain is considered and the reasons for the failure of the policy of supporting the family as a whole are assessed in light of the collapse of Sherifian rule in the Hijaz. Despite that failure, the author concludes that, viewed in the context of the post-war Middle Eastern settlement, British sponsorship of Hashemite rule represented sound policy.