The World's Responsibility to help in the Aftermath of the Arab Spring

The Yemeni insurgents are threatening to form a transitional council if the government does not make President Saleh stand down.

The Syrian insurgents are preparing for another massive demonstration tomorrow as a sign that they will not end their protests until the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad is driven from power.

The Libyan transitional government continues its consolidation of power in Benghazi as UN forces pound Tripoli and insurgents inch toward the west and Tripoli.

Tunisia is in the process of arranging for elections to replace its provisional government.

Egypt is also getting ready for its first elections since the overthrow of the Mubarak regime.

What is going on in the Middle East and North Africa is more and more concrete and irreversible. Only Jordan, a more modern state with a king who represents the Hashimite history of post World War II Jordan, and the Gulf states seem to have avoided regime change. One wonders how long the Saudi Arabian royalty will be able to keep a lid on Bahrain, but for the moment the region seems to have quieted down.

The next step should be coordinated efforts by the rest of the world to support the new governments. Only economic development will solidify their positions and provide the impetus needed to make democratic nation-building work.

When this effort is underway, the next step would logically be to assist them in integrating their various tribal and religious groups into functioning societies, not by suppressing the minorities but by bringing them into the system.

History suggests that these things will not happen, that the new leaders will be left to struggle alone against the almost insurmountable forces aligned against them - poverty, cultural and religious differences and intolerance, the lack of a basic understanding of how democratic states operate.

It would be refreshing if, given this unexpected and promising opportunity, the world would step up to its responsibilities and do something positive. 

Afterall, there are other groups out there who would just love to turn the Arab Spring into a mini fundamentalist revolution.