A Tale of Two MENAs

The Middle East and North Africa, often referred to by the acronym MENA, is a region that gained global prominence eight years ago as the site of the Arab spring (Breisinger et al. 2012). What began as a series of protests in Tunisia quickly inspired revolutions across the MENA region whose effects are still visible today. For instance, in several countries, the revolutions turned into armed conflicts which have now resulted in MENA being the region with the highest number of conflicts and refugees in the world (United Nations Refugee Agency 2017).