ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the politics of change, transition, and continuity in eight key regional actors and explore the real prospects for short-term and medium-term stability inside Arab regimes. It addresses the two countries with the region’s deepest sense of nationhood and hence political stability, Egypt and Israel. Economic inequality, democracy, government accountability, military insufficiency, and the frailty of pseudo-states like Kuwait are on the national and regional agenda in the Middle East; that the clock cannot simply be rolled back to August 1, 1990 is clear. But what is unclear is whether Middle Eastern regimes have grown so resilient that they will simply absorb or deflect these challenges or whether generational change will bring profound political change in its wake. From an historical viewpoint, Washington does not have a stellar record of recognizing, let alone managing, change.
