The war by Bashar al-Assad on the people of Syria has created a civil impasse, and could lead to all-out conflict between Damacus’s Shia ally Iran and a modern, self-democratising Turkey.

With the killing of Bin Laden in Abbottabad, al-Qaeda is as good as dead. This was never a mass movement, or one with connections to real-world struggles like the Arab spring — it fed off the fantasies of loners and theatrical mise en scène.

Ruling elites and religious reactionaries haven’t yet grasped that the restless young in the Middle East will not be bought off by superficial reform.