In this EuroMeSCo Paper, Erzsébet Rózsa argues that the new actors brought to light by the revolutions and the democratisation processes – the “people” and the Islamists – are redefining the geo-strategic landscape of the region. While the “people” struggle to organise into durable political structures, the Islamists lead today most of the new governments of the region, thus affecting their international agenda and relations with external powers such as the EU and the US.

The changing political landscape is also affecting the relations of the countries of the Arab Spring with other external powers. The paper by Rózsa reviews the role of Israel, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia, among others, in this the new geo-strategic environment of the Arab world.