The self-immolation of young and jobless Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid, being deprived of his vegetable stand and humiliated by the authorities, triggered popular movements and historic events in the Arab World completely unexpected in their magnitude...The renown authors in the special edition of “Perspectives Middle East”, a journal of the hbs office in Beirut, address many questions posed by this rapid development.