The Remaking of the Middle East
The entire Arab state system is being challenged and may be unraveling, and the military, Islamist, and powerful sectarian and tribal forces now in play could prevent new configurations from emerging for some time. But democracy, in all probability, will not be one of them.
JERUSALEM – The Middle East’s descent into extreme violence – with mass killings of Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators in Cairo followed closely by Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria’s civil war – has dashed the hopes raised by the Arab Spring in 2011. The question now – and in terms of the future – is how to account for what is shaping up to be a profound historical failure.
JERUSALEM – The Middle East’s descent into extreme violence – with mass killings of Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators in Cairo followed closely by Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria’s civil war – has dashed the hopes raised by the Arab Spring in 2011. The question now – and in terms of the future – is how to account for what is shaping up to be a profound historical failure.