Since its inception, the annual Middle East Dialogue conference sponsored by the Digest of Middle East Studies (DOMES) journal and the Policy Studies Organization (PSO), has become a major international event that brings together leading scholars, diplomats, and policy makers, seeking possible solutions to persistent and often horrendous issues in the Middle East and North Africa. In this book, the events of the Arab Spring and its aftermath are very much on the writers' minds. Included are essays based on papers and debate at the Dialogue in Washington, D.C., and the Conference of the Association for Middle Eastern Public Policy and Administration held in Ifrane, Morocco. The authors were charged with presenting fair and balanced treatment of the controversies involving democratic aspirations, delayed reforms, strained governance and leadership, escalating economic challenges, bitter sectarian conflicts, and gross gender inequities. The fresh and sometimes startling approaches are a must read for anyone trying to make sense of the Middle East and North Africa.