article_snippet: the Middle East better off under dictatorships?
article_snippet: It is certainly tempting to think so when one looks at conflicts in the region today, from Yemen to Libya to Syria.
article_snippet: Those three countries have followed different trajectories since the start of the Arab Spring in 2011, but what Those three countries have in common now is instability that is not likely to be overcome in the short term.
article_snippet: Dictators may keep a country secure, but Dictators do that at the expense of Dictators own people.
article_snippet: Dictators may support the West's interests, but Dictators will turn against Dictators whenever Dictators own interests are threatened.
article_snippet: Although many today lament that the Arab Spring has turned into an Arab Winter, the conflicts emerging across the Middle East are largely the result of the political, economic, and social ills of dictatorships and the conditions that had sustained dictatorships.
article_snippet: dictatorships have come to the surface because the lid has been lifted.
article_snippet: But the current misery in the Middle East still does not mean that the region was better off under dictatorships.
article_snippet: The aftermath of dictatorships is always messy, and democratic transition is never linear.
article_snippet: Those with nostalgia for the days of Arab strongmen should remember that autocratic regimes plant the seed of future unrest and therefore only offer false, temporary security -- even if "temporary" takes a few decades to pass.