the Belt and Road Initiative in Xi'an, Shaanxi province on Tuesday. HUO YAN / CHINA DAILY on the original Silk Road, passing through Central Asia, West Asia, the Middle East and Europe, as well as the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which covers Southeast Asia, Oceania and North Africa. By the end of J

limitations, its borderless online conversations are offsetting the region's political, religious, social, and cultural balkanization. The people of West Asia and North Africa are talking among themselves, even if their governments remain remote. That is a source of hope, if not yet of the systematic and co

the Belt and Road Initiative in )(ran. Shaanxi province M Tuesday. IN,0 VAN /CHINA DAILY on the original Silk Road. passing through Central Asia West Asia. the Middle East and Europe.as well as the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. which covers Southeast Asia. Oceania and North Africa. By the end of

imitations, its borderless online conversations are offsetting the region's political, religious, social, and cultural balkanization. The people of West Asia and North Africa are talking among themselves, even if their governments remain remote. That is a source of hope, if not yet of the systematic and

argument, and plunge instead into a pluralistic discourse that will engage whole populations. SHI'ITE ABSOLUTISM, SUNNI ROYALTY Some societies of West Asia ("Middle East"), nevertheless, are markedly averse to concepts of civil society, most notably Iran and Saudi Arabia. Iran, of course, projects Pers

ans themselves. But here again, the goal was to make Iran's `enemies' uncomfortable, not to destabilise its neighbour.° 62 As it is better known in West Asia, with Hezbollah. See for example Augustus Richard Norton, Hezbollah. A Short Story. Princeton University Press, 2007, pp.72 and 110. 63 Mir H Sadat