Breakdown of the Grand Bargain - II

Byline: Shahid Javed Burki The Arab Spring has resulted in breaking down what might be called the 'grand bargain' between the West and the autocratic governments that had long dominated the Arab and Muslim worlds. This bargain filled in the vacuum created first by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early parts of the 20th century, followed by the end of colonialism a few decades later in the same century. But the Arab world was too important a geographic space to be left to the own devices of the countries that were created, most of them artificially, by the departing colonial powers. What was put in place was an informal arrangement that might be called the 'grand bargain'.