The Middle East and North Africa 2012 (58th edition)

This is a time of unprecedented change for the countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Tunisia, in December 2010, saw the first in a series of protests and demonstrations that has become known as the Arab Spring. Decades of political repression, pressing social demands, high unemployment and entrenched corruption led to civil unrest and the toppling, throughout 2011, of authoritarian regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Other countries in the region have rushed into making some kinds of reforms in attempts to appease unrest. These, together with other key political and economic events from October 2010 through...