Corporate DispatchPro
The world springs into action The Arab Spring was the most significant change in the Middle East and North Africa region since the Sykes-Picot Agreement, just over a century ago. And like the controversial border arrangements, the uprisings have sucked in the international community. The mass protests in 2011 caught the US in the middle of its pivot towards the Asia-Pacific region. America was a long-time ally of the authoritarian regimes which suppressed militant Islamism, but when the revolts broke out, the Obama administration threw its weight behind the protestors. The move intensified the internationalisation of the crises, pulling in Russia, China, and, to some extent, the EU. Moscow went in with a direct military intervention, particularly in Libya and Syria. Cynics initially argued that the aggressive foreign policy line was a decoy by President Putin to deflect attention from domestic challenges, but the engagement has since made Russia a key player and turned the region into a bargaining piece on other global diplomatic issues. China veered away from force and has, instead, sought to build deeper, longer-term ties with the countries in the region. It established dialogue infrastructure such as the China Arab States Cooperation Forum and uses the Belt and Road Initiative to influence strategic relations in areas related to energy, the economy, security, and culture. The European Union has a less defined or unified approach, but the flow of migration both from Middle Eastern and sub-Saharan countries has decisively shaped its internal and external policies over the last decade. Governments in member states, however, mainly France and Italy which have historic links to North African states, have been proactive in pursuing political stability. 29
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