In recent months, a familiar phrase has crept into commentary about South Asia’s turmoil: a new Arab Spring. The comparison is tempting. Just as the Arab uprisings a decade ago toppled rulers in ...

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes," Mark Twain once said—and nowhere does it feel more apt than today, as recent upheavals in South Asia echo the Arab Spring that shook North Africa ...

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Steven Heydemann, Middle East Studies director at Smith College, about how Syria might avoid replicating Arab countries that are worse off after overthrowing dictators.