The suffering of civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo is a terrible indictment of the political impotency of the international community.
Born out of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, the Syrian civil war should act as a wake up call to the potential ramifications of what the shifting political landscape of the Middle East means. How alarming then that the newly released UN Arab Development Report, highlighted in our foreign coverage today, reveals that by 2020 three out of four Arabs could be “living in countries vulnerable to conflict”. It paints a picture of a generation of Arab youth caught in the grip of not only political instability, but also growing unemployment, poverty and marginalisation. This does not bode well for the Arab world or indeed the West. Across the Middle East the spectre of extremist ideology continues to lurk and sections of a disenfranchised and alienated Arab youth remain vulnerable to its sway.
While Arabs make up just 5 per cent of the world’s population they now account for about half the world’s terrorism and refugees. All the signs are that the Arab world is facing another ‘Awakening’ as a new generation rails against the discrimination that prevails around them.
As ever those regimes affected will be ruthlessly tough on dissent, but much less attentive to its underlying causes. Many of the generation who tried to democratise their countries back in 2011, were not only crushed at home but were badly let down by Western governments. For the sake of both the Middle East and wider world its time to start listening and re-engaging again with a generation dangerously ignored.
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