"Respected human rights activist Nonie Darwish assesses the potential for freedom to succeed following the recent revolutions in the Middle East. The recent powerful wave of Middle East uprisings has fueled both hope and trepidation in the region and around the world as the ultimate fate-and fallout-of the Arab spring continue to hang in the balance. Born and raised as a Muslim in Egypt and now living in the United States, Nonie Darwish brings an...

Why are some nations rich and others poor? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of the right policies? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Based on fifteen years of original research, Acemoglu and Robinson marshall historical evidence from the...