Burying Pan Araabism
http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/burying-pan-arabism-4956 Published on The National Interest (http://nationalinterest.org) Source URL (retrieved on Mar 1, 2011): http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/burying-pan-arabism-4956 Burying Pan-Arabism |More[1] | March 1, 2011 Leon Hadar [2] The uprisings in the Arab World have generated two competing narratives in Washington. The first has the making of a Middle Eastern End-of-History prototype: The Arab embrace of liberal democracy is another chapter in the historical epoch evolving since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The competing narrative—a derivative of the Clash-of-Civilizations paradigm—raises the specter of political Islamist radicalization along the lines of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Adopting the first narrative generates confidence that democratic reforms may bring to power political players well disposed to the United States and the values it represents. Hence Washington should help accelerate this process through more “e...