It is in everyone’s long-term interest to stop purposefully undermining developing democratic processes.
Much has happened in the Middle East in the last four years, but in Europe, the development of the state and of democracy took four centuries and many wars.
Cautious conciliatory overtures between Riyadh and Tehran indicate that the realities of the regional power balance might outweigh long-standing hostilities.
The Gulf countries and Iran need to address their mutually contentious foreign policy issues, such as Syria, Iran's nuclear programme, and their relationships with the US.
The more the Gulf states pay a reputational cost in the west for maintaining this system of exploitation, the harder it will be for them to resist demands for serious reform.
Next week anti arms trade activists will be heading to Farnborough to attend the BAE Systems AGM and put new Chair, Sir Roger Carr, on the spot with questions about his company's associations with human rights abusers.
Last week the US president, Barack Obama, visited Saudi Arabia. Fighting extremism, the crisis in Syria, and Iran's nuclear programme would all have been live concerns. Human rights, however, was not.
The Saudi strategy of offering military support to the US while exporting Muslim militancy and portraying itself as the protector of the two holiest sites in the Islamic world has backfired for both Saudi Arabia and the US.
It is critical to recognize the significance of this revolutionary chapter in the modern history of the Middle East and the creative conceptions and articulations of resistance that shattered the system of domination, particularly the popular roots of these uprisings amongst the urban and rural po
Arab Awakening's columnists offer their weekly perspective on what is happening on the ground in the Middle East. Leading the week, The continuous battle against sexual harassment in Egypt.
These oil-rich countries cannot sustain long-term growth and prosperity if half the population remains marginalised and excluded from the workforce. The GCC states should begin to invest in and reform public and private sector institutions in favour of female-friendly policies.
