As I wrote in a Huffington Post essay, "Obama, No Realist He," it is impossible to understand what is happening in North Africa and the Middle East right now without taking a step back and recognizing how fundamentally things are changing throughout the world today. We are seeing so many streams of change flowing into the river of history: technological change, advances in communications and media, evolving economies and the creative/destructive power of globalization, the post-WWII global order, "the rise of the rest," the election to the presidency of the most powerful country in the world a man with non-European lineage. But taken together what we know is that we are in a transitional global period now, and with these events of the last few weeks it feels more like we are entering the beginning of a new age rather than experiencing the end of the last. Read More
