The authoritarian regimes of the Middle East went through a pattern of anti-Western politics until the effects of globalization of the economy and information required reform. As conservative Arab states seek to maintain the autocracy they relied on after gaining independence, their citizens, impressed by the expansion of information and education, challenge their resistant governments, as exemplified by the reluctance of Syria to capitulate. The proliferation of information and education underlined the protest movements of the Arab Spring because citizens' contempt for their stubborn governments ballooned under economic pressures, as demonstrated by the current situation in Syria. The Middle East has historically rebuked Western influence during its process of creating independence. When Britain and France left the Middle East after World War II, the region saw an unprecedented opportunity to create independent, self-sustaining states, free from the Western influence they had felt for hundreds of years. In an attempt to promote nationalistic independence, the states of the region immediately formed the League of Arab States in 1945. The League recognized and promoted the autonomy of its members and collaborated in the regional opposition against the West until 1948, when Israel declared independence. Israel then, as now, represented an invasive Western presence in the Arab world. The ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict exemplifies this cultural antagonism. The Cold War brought attention back to the Middle East as a place of economic and strategic importance for both sides, but the two Cold War hegemons now had to recognize the sovereignty of Middle Eastern states. With their consolidated statehood and power, the Middle East......middle of paper......996. Print.Huntington, Samuel P. Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven: Yale UniversityPress, 1968. Print.Jouejati, Murhaf. “Syria's Motivations for Its Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs and What to Do About It.” Middle East Journal, Vol. 59, no. 1 (Winter 2005), pp. 52-61. Network. December 8, 2013.Lewis, Bernard. The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years. New York: Scribner, 1995. Print.National Geographic. Cradle and melting pot: History and faith in the Middle East. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2002. Print.Nye, Joseph S., and David A. Welch. Understanding global conflict and cooperation: An introduction to theory and history. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print.Talhamy, Yvette. “The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and the Syrian-Iranian relationship”. Middle East Journal, Vol. 63, no. 4 (Autumn, 2009), pp. 561-580. Network. 8 December. 2013.