Strategic Assessment

The events of 2011 known as the "Arab spring" have the potential to generate major changes in the Middle East, but redressing the grievances of those who took to the streets in several Arab cities – objectives that are largely supported by the West – requires an ambitious multi-year agenda and immense funding. While in the short term the international community has succeeded in raising significant sums of money, even if they do not yet reach the amounts required, in the long term, the West does not have a satisfactory response to the complex question of its relations with its Mediterranean neighbors. This article reviews the immediate response to recent events in the Arab world by the US, the EU, and global financial institutions, and assesses longer term implications for this issue.