With a predominantly English speaking subscriber base, it has been hard to view Facebook’s demographics as representative of the Arab consumer. At the same time, no homegrown social network has been successful in appealing to Arabic language Internet users in numbers and the region’s Arabic language social media environment has remained a fragmented one. This is now changing: fast.

Most people in the West were stunned and amazed at the revolts which spread across the Arab World that started in Tunisia in January. Yet the reality was all the ingredients for such uprisings were present and well known...It begs the question as to why the media were part of a collective failure: how come there was no sense in the press of this impending tempest...?

China on Monday pledged to promote peace and stability in west Asia and north Africa as a delegation of Saudi Arabian lawmakers visit. Premier Wen called on the two sides to conduct closer high-level contacts, support each other's core interest and major concerns...enhance cultural exchanges and coordination in international organizations and mechanisms such UN and the G20.

A rising power with a vibrant, free economy and a U.S. ally that aspires to join the European Union, Turkey is held up as an example of marrying Islam and democracy and has been an oasis of stability in a region convulsed by "Arab Spring" uprisings.

Major events in the Middle East –including tensions between the U.S. and Israel, growing political unrest in many Arab countries, and the death of Osama bin Laden – have had little effect on public attitudes toward the region.

Your plan must include approaching the most senior politicians, mobilizing the relevant force multipliers... using the media, influencing local public opinion, and public diplomacy aimed at all the relevant communities.

A transnational world is emerging through social media. Corporations are global. Supply chains are global. The conversation is global. The world is integrated as never before. Yet states guard their sovereignty with a strange ferocity.