Protests

The protests over the past year across the "Middle East" are perhaps saying that the region first and foremost belongs to its people and that the categories of "oil-rich", "oil-less" and "main route" are at best exciting materials for a historian's archive. While unfolding this "categorical revolution", this article explodes two key myths: (1) that of the terminology of the Middle East, and (2) Islam's incompatibility with democracy.

The draft Declaration for the WTO's ministerial meeting at Doha reveals some interesting shifts in the positions of important countries which may help to avoid a repetition of the type of fiasco witnessed at Seattle two years ago.