About once a year, I go through an intense week of meetings, workshops, seminars and conferences that invigorate my sense of optimism and confidence in the capacity of the Arab world to transform itself from a militarized and polarized showcase of turbulence, abuse of power and vulnerability, to a condition of productive, creative decency, dignity and stability. Well, I just went through another one of those weeks. It was rather exhilarating, and also an important indicator of what is happening in our region that foreign observers and officials would do well to understand better.

The events I participated in were rather routine occurrences that happen every day throughout major Arab cities: an American University of Beirut-sponsored gathering of researchers from around the region who examined the governance systems in Palestinian refugee camps, and explored with Lebanese colleagues means of resolving Palestinian-Lebanese tensions; an Arab youth media forum sponsored by UNICEF regional office that brought together journalists from around the Middle East who explored the world of youth and their rights, and the constraints on quality media work; a seminar by the Arab Reform Initiative, a network of 15 Arab research institutes, to study how traditional power elites and social structures are adapting to the phenomenon of new political actors in society; and a regional symposium at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia to explore the issues of water, climate change and energy, youth sector employment trends, and integrated regional development.

This was just one week, in one Arab city, Beirut. I am sure a hundred such gatherings took place all around the Arab world last week. Most of them were not covered by the international media or reported on by diplomats. They should be, because they may be the single strongest force for imminent change in the Arab region: the insistence by citizens of stressed and often violent Arab states to look within their societies, fearlessly question their prevailing regimes and power structures, honestly study and understand the full ranges of forces, players and constraints at work in them, and generate ideas for orderly change from distortion, dictatorship and disparities to a tantalizing new arena of national normalcy.

Two critical first steps to change from within the modern Arab security state clearly are underway: honest Arab men and women are speaking out to identify the ailments and weaknesses of their societies and demand change; they are also undertaking diligent studies and analyses to understand how our otherwise noble Arab culture and warm societies have transformed in the past 40 years to a series of militarized security and police states, where massive shopping malls and real estate extravaganzas seem to matter more than creative young minds and social equity.

I know that just like the 200 people I encountered in my Beirut meetings last week, tens of thousands of other researchers, activists, academics and concerned citizens around the Arab world are doing the same thing every day. No longer satisfied with just pointing out our faults or blaming them on our home-grown Arab autocrats, Israeli predators or Western neo-colonialists, new cohorts of able, thinking, analytical Arabs painstakingly dissect their social, political, economic and security structures, always asking the tough questions: How do military regimes stay in place for decades at a time, without being challenged? How do traditional tribal and religious structures adapt to the autocracies of our time, and remain credible with their constituents? Are there new public spheres of political activity emerging in our region? Who are the new players? How do discontented citizens mobilize for change? What, if anything, can prod change in Arab political systems? Who are the agents of change? What are the control mechanisms that authoritarian regimes use to thwart real change?  

Political reform of entire societies is a slow process, more in the realm of history and archaeology than current politics. Europe required five and a half centuries to move from the Magna Carta to the French Revolution, and another century and a half to give women the vote. A fine meal takes time to simmer and cook. Stable, productive, accountable societies need time to evolve and take root. I am confident this process is underway in the Arab world.

Make no mistake about it, we are passing through a significant historical milestone, as our Iranian and Turkish colleagues did in recent decades: however, Arab activists, scholars and concerned citizens who have not been able to challenge or change their distorted power structures have lost their fear of their ruling elites, and have put their elites and their foreign supporters on the dissecting table. Police state-style regimes that have long kept tabs on their citizens have had the tables turned on them; the Arab state is now under surveillance by its own citizens.