The Greater Middle East is a ticking time bomb -Part 1.

By James M. Dorsey

I hope you enjoy today’s column and podcast. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscribers help me cover the cost of contributing fact-based analysis and understanding to a debate that has become increasingly polarised and weaponised. You can become a paid subscriber, by becoming a paid Medium member.

To watch a video version of this story or listen to an audio podcast click here.

The Greater Middle East is a ticking time bomb.

The region’s most apparent powder keg — the risk of a regional conflagration between Israel and Iran that could draw the United States and regional countries like Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, and Gulf states into the conflict — is foremost on policy and opinion makers’ minds. So is the war in Gaza with its devastating humanitarian fallout.

Yet, simmering at the surface in Gaza and across much of the Middle East and North Africa is social, economic, and political anger and frustration that could erupt at any moment but may not immediately manifest itself publicly.

This two-part series explores developments autocratic Arab rulers and US policymakers ignore at their peril. This two-part series explores developments autocratic Arab rulers and US policymakers ignore at…