Examines the complex interplay of nations regarding the Arab Spring and its continuing, turbulent seasons. Amin sees the United States, in an increasingly multi-polar world, as a victim of its own overreach, caught in a web of attempts to contain the challenge of China, while confronting the staying power of nations such as Syria and Iran. The growing need of the Arab people for independent, popular democracy is the cause of their awakening, says Amin. It is this awakening to democracy that the United States fears most, since real self-government by independent nations would necessarily mean the end of U.S. empire, and the economic liberalism that has kept it in place. The way forward for the Arab world, Amin argues, is to take on, not just Western imperialism, but also capitalism itself. --From publisher description.