Economic liberalization has failed in the Arab world. Instead of ushering in economic dynamism and precipitating democratic reform, it has over the last three decades resulted in greater poverty, rising income inequality and sky-rocketing rates of youth unemployment. In How Capitalism Failed the Arab World, Richard Javad Heydarian shows how years of economic mismanagement, political autocracy and corruption have encouraged people to revolt, and how the initial optimism of the uprisings is now giving way to bitter power struggles, increasing uncertainty and continued economic stagnation.

A unique and provocative analysis of some of the key social and political events of the last decade.

Richard Javad Heydarian is an Assistant Professor in political science at De La Salle University, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on international relations, and a policy advisor at the Philippine House of Representatives. He has authored more than 400 articles, policy papers, and op-eds on Asian geopolitical and economic affairs, writing for or interviewed by Foreign Affairs, BBC, Bloomberg, Aljazeera, Huffington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The National Interest, The Nation, among other leading publications.

He is a specialist on foreign policy and economic development issues, he has served as a consultant to various local and international institutions.