Why does a war start? What motivates a defector to fabricate a story about his country even if it means death for his countrymen? What drives a man to take his own life and those of unknown strangers in a suicide attack? Where do extremist ideologies come from? How does a small country, both in size and population, position itself to become a regional heavyweight? What is the real difference between watching the news on television and witnessing it in person? Is it worth dying in pursuit of the truth?

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Drawing from firsthand accounts and anicides, Amjad M. Tadros, the Middle East Producer for CBS News and four-time Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist addresses these questions—and many more. Some can be answered; many will never be. "Front Row Seat" tells the history of the Middle East and will transform the reader’s understanding of one of the world's most tumultuous regions. The key takeaway of this book is that more often than not, the turbulent happenings in the Middle East are rooted in misunderstandings between the Arab and Western worlds.

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Amjad, living between the two worlds, searches for the heart of every story as he journeys across the region, to bombed-out cities, to desert plane crashes, to palaces overflowing with wealth. Along the way, he encounters dictators, rebels, politicians, fighters, artists, and people from every walk of life. He tells about the many missed opportunities that have changed the course of world history forever, illustrating that the small things in life do matter, that every small thread affects the tapestry.