Future Watch, September 2004: Technology and Social Change in the Middle East

September 1, 2004

At a July 2004 Global Strategy Institute Forum, Jon Alterman, director of the CSIS Middle East Program, warned that such trends could even have a severely disruptive effect in the Arab world. While the expansion of information technologies and knowledge flows can improve education, raise incomes, increase equality, and promote better governance, they can also exacerbate differences within societies, raise expectations without raising incomes, and facilitate mobilization of the unconnected masses.