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The International Monetary Fund expects the average economic growth in the Arab countries to be lower than 4 percent in 2014, a modest figure that is not enough to reduce the high unemployment rates.
Diversity must be seen as a strength in the Arab world if the countries in the region are to evolve into democratic societies.
Throughout the Middle East, the overthrow of Egypt’s Mohamed Morsi has heightened Islamist-secularist tensions and pushed actors toward zero-sum politics.
Regardless of its policy performance, a Sisi presidency is not likely to be a disaster. It may disappoint many but it is unlikely to collapse and might evolve in a variety of ways.
Defense Minister General Abdul-Fattah Sisi will almost certainly become Egypt’s next president, but at the cost of taking Egypt back to the first republic.
The United States is worried that Egypt is going down a path of persistent instability and that the crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood is going to fuel Islamist extremism and terrorism in Egypt and throughout the region.
Mubarak’s overthrow ushered in more of the same in Egypt—an authoritarian political process. The Egyptian state needs to be completely reinvented.
Tunisia and Morocco are stuck between competing secularist and Islamist conceptions of the true and ideal nation and the role of religion in it.
The United States cannot control what happens in Egypt, but a consistent U.S. stand for democracy and human rights can influence the political trajectory of this important U.S. ally.
To truly move Tunisia forward, Islamist and secular forces must address the country’s socioeconomic problems that breed unrest and angry radicals.