The current political upheaval in the Arab world could transform the Middle East and North Africa in the same way that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 fundamentally changed Europe. Indeed, 1989 was a watershed, producing the most profound global geopolitical changes in the most compressed timeframe in history.
当前这场阿拉伯政治动荡最终会像1989年柏林墙倒塌改变欧洲那样彻底改变整个中东和北非地区。事实上1989年是个分水岭，在极为短促的历史时期内实现了最为深刻的全球地缘政治变革。但从那以后的几十年来，阿拉伯世界的统治者，政权和政治习俗却似乎依然根深蒂固，不可动摇。