Brookings Cafeteria Podcast: The Next Democracy Debate In The Middle East

The Brookings Institution is one of Washington DC's preeminent think tanks, and it only makes sense that it has a podcast. The Brookings Cafeteria Podcast showcases the full breadth of the foundation's expertise, shifting from the Middle East to Russia, India, or Latin America without skipping a beat.

The present episode falls under the rubric of the Democracy and Disorder Project, a four-part series tracing the development of democracy in various regions. This talk focuses on the Arab world eight years after the onset of the Arab Spring. Salam Fayyed and Sharan Grewal join host Torrey Taussig to discuss the failures and repercussions of the movement, and how the West and the international community can respond. They touch upon the one bright spot of those revolutions, Tunisia, while also devoting significant time to Egypt, which has since become more repressive than ever. Despite the promise of the time, the region has lapsed into merely a more oppressive form of governance, with local autocrats more paranoid than ever and the international community too concerned with "stability," migration, and radicalization to address the root causes of either of the latter two issues.

The guests could hardly be more qualified (one is a former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, the other a postdoctoral researcher) and the discussion is thoroughly illuminating. This bodes well for the other episodes which likely feature a similar calibre of discussion.