Unfortunate that Western and particularly leading US Middle Eastern studies have been catering to the authoritarian regimes, and once the regimes are collapsing, shifting to a copy cat with the forthcoming Islamist Governments
Middle East Studies failed to predict and address the “Arab Spring”
When the young Tunisian burned himself in protest against authoritarian oppression and lack of economic justice, triggering massive demonstrations in this small North African country, commentators hesitated to coin the movement as an Arab Spring. It took months, and events exploding in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria before the West coined the upheavals "Arab Spring." And as the movement was developing throughout the region the West was also unsure as to which direction these revolutions are going to go.
