Shortly before her resignation, the Marly Group penned a tribune accusing the government of bungling its handling of revolts in Egypt and Tunisia and claiming that a short-term and amateur approach to foreign policy was destroying French influence.

The funding, provided over the next three years, is a response to the Arab Spring — the pro-democracy movements that have arisen in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and other Arabic countries.

Social media, including Twitter, Facebook, Diggit, live video, texting, bloggers, websites, My Space, and other outlets, now focus on the power of mass protests to rally together to topple governments and spread messages to fellow countrymen, and ultimately tell their story to the rest of the world.

It was the dismal failure of Egyptian leadership in the region that was at the heart of the Arab predicament and the deep admiration of Turkey’s growing soft power. With the Arab Spring and particularly Egypt’s revolution, Cairo is now slowly re-emerging as the most likely candidate to fill the vacuum of strategic leadership in the Arab world.

President Barack Obama’s latest speech on the Middle... generated a shrug from a region that is neither looking to Washington for leadership nor particularly convinced this American president has much to offer. Most of all, the public does not see the radical break in American foreign policy...

Tunisia has little to lose in a go-for-broke strategy to bring back visitors. Like Egypt, its bigger neighbour to the east, the Arab Spring has garnered it a lot of Western admirers but has frightened sight-seers and beach denizens.

The latest technological developments in Arab world broadcasting show significant progress in press freedoms and audience outreach, according to Gulfnews.com. Specifically, the growth of satellite channels has made an exceptional impact by circumventing Arab states’ control over the stream of information.

Sunday's election in Turkey was another reminder of the country’s astonishing rise, which has been one of the most dramatic geopolitical stories of the last decade. Turkey has become not just a safe haven, but a model for what many Arabs would like to see their countries become. Finding a way to stabilize the ever-more-turbulent Middle East is Turkey’s most urgent task.