The crisis of governance in the greater Middle East has now reached the top of policy-makers' agenda. Something of a new consensus has emerged in Europe, America and across the Middle East itself that Arab state failure is not just a political or socio-economic problem, but also the source of many security threats. At the same time, policy-makers lack a clear strategy on how to promote higher standards of governance, more respect for political pluralism and greater religious tolerance.

In dealing with this volatile and complex region, there is a danger that the West will move from crisis to crisis, treating symptoms not causes. In that case, the names of the rogue states, failed states and terrorist groups will change, but not the underlying problems of ossified political systems, growing religious extremism, and widespread anti-Western - and often anti-Semitic - sentiment. That is why a long-term strategy is needed to transform the ossified political and economic systems of the region.

Think-tanks have a crucial role to play in the long-term effort to encourage democratic reform in the Middle East. The CER is one of the founding members of a new programme that will look at these issues, the Arab Reform Initiative. The Arab Reform Initiative is a consortium of a dozen Arab research and policy institutes, with partners from the United States and Europe.