The Middle East has long been one of the world's most turbulent areas; for decades the region's Arab nations largely remained under the grip of strongman regimes and royal families. Then came December 2010, when a surge of age-old resentments broke through to the surface in the form of mass popular protests, first in Tunisia and then in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain. These public demonstrations resulted in the removal of several autocratic leaders and sparked a wave of similar protest movements across the Arab Near East that came to be referred to as the Arab Spring.The changes begun in North Africa that spread into the Middle East in the spring of 2011 have altered the regional dynamic, and the consequences continue to the present. The Syrian conflict continues to be a driving factor of the broader Middle Eastern security environment, as the domestic civil war has transitioned into a new conflict related to great and regional power posturing. The spread of refugees to neighboring countries, in particular, has strained budgets as regional governments attempt to cope with the inflow. Terrorist groups have festered as security vacuums emerge. As neighboring states along with the U.S.-led coalition and Russia have become involved in Syria, a number of incidents have raised concerns about the potential for misjudgments and operational accidents to lead to wider warfare.
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