{"id":2962,"date":"2014-12-14T07:42:35","date_gmt":"2014-12-14T12:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=2962"},"modified":"2014-12-14T07:42:35","modified_gmt":"2014-12-14T12:42:35","slug":"the-middle-east-in-2015-and-beyond-trends-and-drivers-page-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=2962","title":{"rendered":"The Middle East in 2015 and Beyond: Trends and Drivers (Page 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/n3\/1140127-the-middle-east-in-2015-and-beyond-trends-and-drivers\/\">The Middle East in 2015 and Beyond: Trends and Drivers (Page 1)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 15px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 22px; color: #000000; display: block; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">Four years after the uprisings that broke the mold of the old Middle East, 2015 promises to be another year of tumultuous change. The eruptions of 2011 unleashed decades of pent-up tensions and dysfunction in the political, socioeconomic, and cultural spheres; these dynamics will take many years, if not decades, to play themselves out and settle into new paradigms and equilibriums.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 15px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 22px; color: #000000; display: block; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">In 2014, four Arab countries\u2014Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen\u2014sank decisively into the ranks of failed states with no longer any effective central authority over the expanse of national territory. ISIS arose as the largest radical threat in the region\u2019s modern history, challenging political borders and order and proposing political identities and governance paradigms. Sunni-Shi\u2019i conflict intensified throughout the Levant and reached Yemen; an intra-Sunni conflict also pitted supporters and opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt rebuked its previously ruling Islamists and elected a military officer as president who has prioritized security and economics and cracked down heavily on dissent. Tunisia\u2019s secular nationalists and Islamists found a way forward with a new constitution and inclusive national elections. Jordan and Lebanon have managed to maintain stability despite massive refugee inflows. A cautious Algeria maintained its status quo, reelecting an aging president to a fourth term. And Morocco continued its experiment in accommodation between a powerful monarchy and a government led by the moderate Islamist PJD party.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 15px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 22px; color: #000000; display: block; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\"><!-- [if gte mso 9]><xml>\n <w:WordDocument>\n  <w:Zoom>0<\/w:Zoom>\n  <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0<\/w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>\n  <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0<\/w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>\n  <w:UseMarginsForDrawingGridOrigin\/>\n <\/w:WordDocument>\n<\/xml><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: LucidaGrande; color: #282828;\">&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 15px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 22px; color: #000000; display: block; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\"><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Middle East in 2015 and Beyond: Trends and Drivers (Page 1). Four years after the uprisings that broke the mold of the old Middle East, 2015 promises to be another year of tumultuous change. The eruptions of 2011 unleashed decades of pent-up tensions and dysfunction in the political, socioeconomic, and cultural spheres; these dynamics [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[355,379,522,1634,1898,1899],"class_list":["post-2962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-geopolitics-2","tag-government","tag-middle-east","tag-shiite","tag-social-stability","tag-sunni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2963,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions\/2963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}