Following the release of The Economic Consequences of the Arab Spring, Mohsin Khan, senior fellow with the Rafik Hariri Middle East Center, examines the impact of social unrest and uncertainty over the past three years. He notes how politics dominates economic policy-making, which could have a negative impact for long term growth, but observes that the economies of the transitioning countries have begun to stabilize (albeit at lower levels of growth than one would hope). The challenge for these governments now will involve job creation and enhancing absorptive capacity, a factor that sparked the initial uprisings.