The Arab Spring’s Unintended Consequences

As the Arab Spring protests continue, the region endures repression and economic upheaval, to be exacerbated with impending US troop withdrawal from Iraq. Christopher Hill, former US assistant secretary of state for Asia during the Bush administration, links sectarian clashes with US withdrawal in Iraq in a Project Syndicate essay. A US-led international coalition deposed Iraq’s dictator, leading to representative government and a Shia majority – a power shift resented by Sunni governments in the region. Hill admits to a flaw in US calculations before the invasion and a misunderstanding of Arab sensibilities: “The 1,300-year-old Sunni/Shia divide was not what the US had in mind when it invaded in 2003. After all, such sectarian identities are not the sort of basis for politics that a twenty-first-century democracy should embrace.” Hill concludes, directing an age-old diplomatic consideration at Saudi Arabia: “one wonders how much more progress Iraq would have made had the Saudis spent more time and money supporting Iraq rather than denouncing it.” The same question applies to all neighbors with differences. – YaleGlobal