The stability and security of authoritarian regimes cannot create but terrorism and violence and destruction.

But distrust of universalism in Asia is not confined to autocrats.

First, America and the West must stop supporting autocrats with aid, trade, and arms.

Failed states, it was now acknowledged, were no less an impediment to development than were overbearing states.

Decades of unholy alliance between Arab autocrats and the West have seen radical Islam emerge as a salvation force.

Of perhaps greater long term worry is the support that China providesor Africa s authoritarian rulers.

The observer for Interfaith International spoke about the lack of justice in countries with totalitarian regimes and mentioned the examples of Cambodia and the Soviet Union.

The American strategy was management through autocratic leaders, and a don't rock the boat approach.

Part of America s reluctance to deal with Islamists reflected concern over the reaction of autocratic regimes, some of which are long time allies.

RABAT Tunisia s Jasmine Revolution has thrown a spotlight on the consequences of stagnant economies and endemic youth unemployment for the region s authoritarian Arab governments.

What sold best was an image of oppressive big government, reflected in a tax system that was increasingly burdensome to ordinary people, combined with anti communist nationalism and barely veiled racism.

But there is a strong belief across the region that the costs of removing autocracies, as high as they might be, are low compared to the damage inflicted by the current rulers. In short, freedom is worth the price.

After the popular upheaval that ousted President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali from power, the peril of supporting Arab autocrats in exchange for flimsy stability should have once again become apparent to Western powers.

Despite the horrific violence of Islamist fanatics, it should not be forgotten that the mosque can also be a legitimate basis for resistance against the mostly secular dictatorships in the Middle East today.

The world of the Cold War is gone, as are schools and factories organized like barracks, authoritarian trade unions, gay bashing, and women s obligation to receive permission from their husbands before being able to work or open a bank account.

This requires, first of all, cozying up with China and the autocratic Gulf states the main lenders to the US Treasury as well working with Iran and Russia to limit the costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

States in the Middle East are becoming weaker than ever, as traditional authorities, whether aging monarchs or secular authoritarians, seem increasingly incapable of taking care of their restive publics. As state authority weakens, tribal and sectarian allegiances strengthen.

But this fluid hierarchy, an absence of written rules and organizational order, allowed the various seminaries and their different interpretive traditions to survive despotic political regimes and resist intervention by different dynasties and monarchies.

Now these are things about general culture, but I'm also very much interested in political culture and whether liberty and democracy is appreciated, or whether there's an authoritarian political culture in which the state is supposed to impose things on the citizens.

The fall of oppressive regimes in Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania were all resolved within two years of each country s respective uprising, and in most cases the primary focus of revolution was to overthrow oppressive ruling systems and replace them with something more unifying.