For every pithy conceptualization of complex events, there are additional lenses through which to examine them. One of the several virtues of this book is precisely that it brings different perspectives to bear on the complexity, diversity, and uncertainty of recent and current events in the Arab world. The thirteen authors concentrate on the critical social forces shaping the region - demography, religion, gender, telecommunication connectivity, and economic structures - and they are painstakingly analyzed and evaluated.

-from the foreword by Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution