“Tom Barrack’s statements carry the traces of an old mindset that sees the peoples of the Middle East not as the subjects of democratic republics, but as communities that must be kept under strong central authorities. Yet the last century of the region has shown that one-man regimes have brought neither peace, nor prosperity, nor stability. What this geography needs is not the worn-out authoritarian molds of the past, but a new vision of the future based on popular sovereignt