In the last presidential foreign policy debate, Republican candidate Mitt Romney used the word “tumult” five times when discussing the Middle East. Employment in the region, on the other hand, was mentioned only once, sandwiched between President Obama’s guarantee of preserving Israel’s security and a non-sequitur on the US education system.
While there is no doubt that the civil war in Syria and the threat of a nuclear Iran present serious challenges for the region’s future, both candidates’ presentation of the Middle East as a violent and unstable monolith ignores a remarkable and important recent trend: the emergence of a thriving Arab tech startup scene.
To read the original article: Silicon Valley with a side of hummus: How startups are building the new Middle East | VentureBeat
