Contributor(s): Professor Fawaz A Gerges | Today's Middle East is broken. The crisis of prolonged authoritarianism and failed economic policies have caused chronic poverty, pervasive corruption and the rise of extremism in Arab societies. A wasted decade of war on terror has reinforced widely held perceptions that the West is waging a crusade against Islam and Muslims. Fawaz Gerges is a professor of Middle Eastern politics and international relations at LSE.