An acclaimed Middle East expert and Foreign Policy blogger explores the ramifications of upheaval in the Arab world, and how the West should react. The Middle East today is undergoing one of the most fundamental changes in its modern history: the empowerment of a new generation of Arabs who reject the world they inherited. In ''The Arab Uprising'', the director of George Washington University's Institute for Middle East Studies maintains that the revolutions that have so far brought down the governments of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya are only the beginning. It is far too soon to know whether these events will produce new democracies or something else entirely. Whatever happens, we must now come to grips with a region where public opinion actually matters, perhaps for the first time in the region's history. Informed by inside access to the Obama Administration's decision-making process and a wealth of knowledge about youth activists and Islamists alike, ''The Arab Uprising'' is a necessary guide to the changing lay of the land in the Middle East and North Africa.