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Abstract

Throughout the year 2003, the Arab world found itself at the center of the preoccupations of the American 'hyper power' and of an American administration keen to deploy its might in order to defend the 'national interests' of the country. The year 2002 had shown that American thinking relative to the future of the Arab world had already been intense and that suspicion extended beyond the matter of Iraq to reach even the traditional allies of the Americans, over the concepts of transformation (or of democratization) of the region. Arab political regimes have indeed been criticized over the past two years not only for their authoritarianism, but more especially for their share of responsibility in the rise of anti-Americanism, a phenomenon which would have permitted the terrorist attacks. These regimes are at the same time confronted with their own societies, which are reacting to regional events by blaming the carelessness and cowardice of their leaders.

Philippe Droz-Vincent is Professor of political science at the Institutes of Political Studies (IEP) in Paris and Toulouse.