The Third Wave Revolution in the Middle East…and the Administration’s Cluelessness

Kim Holmes / February 24, 2011

First it was the Arab and Persian nationalist revolts against European colonialism.  Next it was the Islamist revolt against the corrupt monarchies and nationalist regimes set up in the nationalist era.  Now we have a third wave of revolt across the Middle East that is unprecedented and unpredictable.

Arab nationalism was largely an elite phenomenon that drove and exploited popular sentiments.  Islamism is driven by clerics and political ideologues like the Muslim Brotherhood who likewise exploit peoples’ religious beliefs and social resentments.  The current third wave of revolt is truly a bottom-up, people driven movement.  It’s driven not by nationalism, Islamism or any other 20th Century “ism,” but by a 21^st Century socially linked-up mass movement of people who are sick of corruption, the lack of representative government, and being poor. (more…)