Ending Sykes-Picot: the Arab World and the West after 2011.

摘要

Amidst ongoing instability in the post-2011 Arab political, economic and social environment,udaccelerated in many cases by the weakening of the authority of the state – and in some cases byudthe removal or terminal decline of regimes – fundamental issues about what it means to beudArab and modern in the post-colonial Arab order are in dispute.udThe driving forces of change – demographic pressures, education, connectivity, unemploymentudand other frustrations and indignities – continue to fracture most Middle East Arab societies inudcomplex ways, while the core political, judicial and economic institutions created byudmodernising rulers since the 19th century (in the case of Egypt) and in the colonial and earlyudpost-colonial era mostly remain in place. In Egypt and some other non-oil exporting Arabudcountries an amorphous desire to widen space for political and cultural expression was met byudhard-edged determination to secure the success of an ill-defined and largely unarticulatedudIslamist vision. While initially it enjoyed political ascendancy 1ud the Islamist trend hasudsubsequently encountered major challenges to its authority and political legitimacy