V. V. Naumkin, V. V. Popov, and V. A. Kuznetsov, IV RAS; Factof mirovoi politiki i ISAA MSU im. Moscow: IV RAS Publ., 2012, 593 p. Often, turning points in the development of a particular region, or even the whole of humanity, occur suddenly for contemporaries, and there is a seeming impression that they do not have prerequisites, retrospect and conditionality. Of course, events of this magnitude could not have been just a historical accident, but were a natural result of the socio-political and economic development of most Arab countries in the previous decades. The effect of randomness and surprise was caused by the fact that outdated regimes, which did not want to take into account the accumulating negative factors of their authoritarian rule against the background of rapid demographic growth, only created the impression of internal state stability. This illusion, which was readily accepted by foreign partners, could not but be replaced by an explosion of destructive power. The events of the "Arab Spring" came as a surprise to the vast majority of domestic and foreign specialists, who were at first in a state of considerable confusion. However, there was no shortage of explanations, analytical reviews, forecasts and predictions, but the collapse of events, like the "domino principle", immediately overturned and debunked most of them. It soon became clear that it takes some time to understand the dynamics, to calculate the regularities of the characteristics of new internal realities and processes. Therefore, the next, more serious stage of research, which was realized in the appearance of thematic collections of articles and collective monographs, began somewhat later. Among such scientific publications, it is necessary to take revenge on the collection of articles "Partnership of Civilizations: there is no reasonable alternative" edited by V. V. Naumkin (Moscow, 2011). This thematic collection was compiled to mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror ... Read more