ABSTRACT
US and European policies towards the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have been modestly upgraded. President Obama gave a major policy address at the Department of State in which he raised democracy and human rights in Arab countries as a policy priority: The United States supports a set of universal rights. The EU has committed to supporting incipient political change in a more nuanced, sophisticated, and demand-driven fashion. A core focus of EU strategy was to boost local actors' capacity to fight the Islamic State. Several EU member states helped build the security capabilities of forces combating the group. The West's impact on the nascent shaping of the new Middle East has so far been relatively marginal, especially in light of the way that the Arab Spring has been displaced by major new security challenges. The EU and United States changed their policies in a pro-reform direction just when their own power had begun to diminish more notably.
