Middle East, States of Flux

The Middle East is a region of great diversity and is also undergoing something of a period of transition, both socially and culturally. The Arab Spring is the most obvious expression of this, but much of this ‘revolutionary’ activity has occurred on the periphery and has had a less clear and indeed critical impact on the core Gulf states.

To the east is Iran, something of a pariah state and subject to international sanctions on the one hand but at the same time is a modernizing Islamic democracy which boasts a high literacy rate, a birth rate lower than in many Western countries and a quarter of its population now has Internet access. While its own neighbor Iraq is recovering from war and occupation, Syria is descending into its own civil war and arguably the region’s most liberal grouping, the UAE, has been developing as a truly international center. Government efforts to develop itself have drawn in large numbers of expatriates from around the world.

The region can increasingly be seen as a melting pot where indigenous Arab and imported Western as well as Eastern cultures meet. It is unlikely that any other region can boast such wide v