Walter Russell Mead on the Causes of the Migration Crisis
Mead notes:
“One hundred years
after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and 50 years after the French left
Algeria, the Middle East has failed to build economies that allow ordinary people
to live with dignity, has failed to build modern political institutions and has
failed to carve out the place of honor and respect in world affairs that its
peoples seek….
But it is worth
noting that the Arab world has tried a succession of ideologies and forms of
government, and that none of them has worked. The liberal nationalism of the
early 20th century failed, and so did the socialist nationalism of Egypt’s Gamal
Abdel Nasser and his contemporaries. Authoritarianism failed the Arabs
too: Compare what Lee Kwan Yew created in resource-free Singapore
with the legacy of the Assads in Syria or of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.”
Related:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-25299553
East Asia vs. Middle East – Different Economic
Development Models
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/08/11/a-tale-of-two-economic-trajectories/
The Middle East - Past and Present