That's the question posed by Joshua Tucker on The Monkey Cage blog. He compares the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt to eastern Europe in 1989. Are we in the midst of a domino-effect revolution that will change the world? An excerpt:
The larger question is whether Tunisia could turn out to be the Poland of the Arab world: the first transition away from a regime long thought to be immutable that sets in motion a path of regime change throughout the region. At first glance, this would seem to be extremely unlikely. Prior to Tunisia, it is difficult to remember the last Middle Eastern regime to fall outside of an external invasion (Iran in 1979?). And yet, a quick glance at a Google News search for Tunisia reveals articles linking protests in Tunisia to events in Egypt, Algeria, Jordan and even Gabon and Indonesia.
Read it all here.
I was an Army officer stationed in Nuremberg Germany from 1988-1991. I was there when the wall fell. It was stunning. No one expected it to happen so quickly, yet there it was. I remember crowds gathering in the streets of Nuremberg on the night that people took hammers to the wall in Berlin. I remember driving to Munich on the first weekend that the Autobahns opened between East and West. This was the main route between East Germany and Bavaria. Crowds of Germans gathered on the overpasses waving to Trabants chugging along. I was in Berlin on the very day that the "ghost" subway stations opened connecting ultra-modern West Berlin with time-warp, crumbling East Berlin. I took one of the very first subway rides to the east. It was surreal. It was a privilege to witness history in the making. We may be witnessing the course of history changing again.
The larger question is whether Tunisia could turn out to be the Poland of the Arab world: the first transition away from a regime long thought to be immutable that sets in motion a path of regime change throughout the region. At first glance, this would seem to be extremely unlikely. Prior to Tunisia, it is difficult to remember the last Middle Eastern regime to fall outside of an external invasion (Iran in 1979?). And yet, a quick glance at a Google News search for Tunisia reveals articles linking protests in Tunisia to events in Egypt, Algeria, Jordan and even Gabon and Indonesia.
Read it all here.
I was an Army officer stationed in Nuremberg Germany from 1988-1991. I was there when the wall fell. It was stunning. No one expected it to happen so quickly, yet there it was. I remember crowds gathering in the streets of Nuremberg on the night that people took hammers to the wall in Berlin. I remember driving to Munich on the first weekend that the Autobahns opened between East and West. This was the main route between East Germany and Bavaria. Crowds of Germans gathered on the overpasses waving to Trabants chugging along. I was in Berlin on the very day that the "ghost" subway stations opened connecting ultra-modern West Berlin with time-warp, crumbling East Berlin. I took one of the very first subway rides to the east. It was surreal. It was a privilege to witness history in the making. We may be witnessing the course of history changing again.
