The uprising in Egypt and Tunisia makes it necessary to reconsider the routines of western diplomacy.

Considering the established routines of western diplomacy in the North African world there should have been a reinvention long before the people arose to throw out their autocratic rulers. Too long its behaviour was a compendium of old shaped reasonability born in times of colonialism. The only measure to judge Arabic people and circumstances had been the civilization western style. The Entrance into Islamic culture which can be resolutely differentiated and elaborated was never mastered because of a deep and compromising lack of respect. And respect is the condition to share absolutely while conversing with this part of the world.

The erosion of the monolithic Islamic systems in the east took place out of the awareness of the west. While the new administration of the US was busy by counting the losses of a frontal, non-emphatic and aggressive foreign policy in the last decade, a new middle class was counting its losses within its own progress. Although there have been a lot of achievements in education, although there was some money to earn and although there was the participation in a new global communication network, the countries remained as if nothing had happened.

Whether in Egypt or in Tunisia, the economic progress did not correspond with democratisation. The specific fault of these countries had been a rising wealth of a new middle class while at the mean time a growing number of working class members were pauperizing. The opportunity to rise in the social scale by getting a better education was a cul-de-sac and the educated took the employments of the workers instead. Corresponding with a growing wish to be an active member of decision processes, the new powers of the old societies came into contradiction to power. While the autocratic rulers repeated their sermons of discipline and hardship of life and quoted the Koran, especially the youth grew inpatient.

The hesitation of the western world during the rebellions in Tunis and Cairo disappointed deeply. The demonstrating and their life risking young people on the streets were convinced to handle the situation in the most democratic way possible. The loyal attitude towards the old rulers of at first the US and second Europe evoked a disappointment very difficult to mend. The current situation should be used to reconsider western attitude towards the Islamic hemisphere. The rising dynamic there contributes to the demographic pressure, the best ally of democracy.

There is a very slim line left. It ought to be stronger between the old democracies and the young, upcoming countries, facing a period of enlightenment and democratisation. The old tools and habits of post colonial diplomacy should be transferred to the museums.

First published in Atlantic-Community.org