Sykes & Picot, and Arab Identity

David Werdiger looks back at the Sykes-Picot agreement after World War I which was the blueprint for the modern Middle East. It put stability ahead of human rights, and managed to keep things reasonably stable because it reflected the nature of Arab identity. More recently, attempts to bring democracy to the region have failed because they didn’t understand Arab identity and tribalism [Algemeiner and Times of Israel (longer version)]