Since Muhammad Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia on December 17, 2010, galvanizing the Arab uprisings that continue today, the entire Middle East landscape has changed in ways that were unimaginable years before. In spite of the early hype about a so-called 'Arab Spring' and the prominence observers gave to calls for the downfall of regimes and an end to their abuses, most of the protests and uprisings born of Bouazizi's self-immolation have had disastrous results across the whole Middle East. While the old powers reasserted their control with violence in Egypt and Bahrain, Libya, Yemen, and Syria have virtually ceased to exist as states, torn apart by civil wars. In other states, namely Morocco and Algeria, the forces of reaction were able to maintain their hold on power, while in the 'hybrid democracies' of Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq, protests against government inefficiency, corruption, and arrogance have done little to bring about the sort of changes protesters have