On February 17-18, the Valdai Discussion Club held the Ninth Middle East Conference in partnership with the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It featured more than 50 political actors and experts from 20 countries.
The second day of the conference opened with a session titled “Is the Arab Street Making a Comeback?” As the speakers observed, one of the Arab Spring’s unexpected consequences was that the expert community is speaking less about democratization, and more often discuss the importance of state institutions. It seems that amid the chaos experienced by many countries of the region, the existence of a valid state began to be perceived as a true blessing.
During the sixth and final session, the experts discussed scenarios of the future and concluded that it depends on how many external actors will be able to agree among themselves. So far, Russia, Turkey, and Iran were relatively successful in that.
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