It fills me with joy to see countries around the world rising up and taking action to ensure that their voices are being heard. The blood, sweat and tears are painful for all to see but the hopes and fears are being brought to the surface after years of being denied. Aside from the oil and the frozen assets, more attention should be paid towards the political benefits of such actions like what we are witnessing in the Middle East.

The world is usually divided into two camps, split between commercial issues and human rights. The dividing line creates much of the political tensions that we may or may not being experiencing right now. That analysis may be overly simplistic but when we agree on a starting point, other arguments can take shape.

What we are witnessing today is similar to the ‘third way’ ideas that transformed the British political landscape. Western governments seem to be boasting about their ethical foreign policies whilst forgetting that those two opposing ideas are the cause of most problems around the world.

Consistency is the key. Without becoming too political, how can one approach be used in one region whilst an entirely different approach is offered to another? Things get even more complicated when different approaches are used within the same region.

Western nations dance between idealistic and pragmatic approaches using legal arguments to back up their actions. Particular attention is paid to certain parts of the world to mitigate against failed states causing problems in our own backyard, so to speak. Everything from crime, drugs, migration, and diseases has to be contained as much as possible.

The other important reason why we champion uprisings is that the resulting democracies not only create a stable place, it allows business to take place.

Over the years, the Middle East has been an economic failure with low exports, low attainment, and high unemployment. That economic failure has contributed to the treatment of women and bad governance. The attraction of violent solutions grows with the lack of jobs and opportunities. Social alienation along with economic and political alienation either breeds hate and terror or hope and peace.

Instead of western states being given carte blanche to continue their authorisation missions within the region, we need to be making a clear distinction between what is right and wrong. A thorough look into the flow of Middle Eastern money going through Switzerland is long overdue and releasing that money so people can get on with running their own countries should be the required approach.

We only make progress through the political activism of certain individuals and we should acknowledge the journey that people are making to secure their countries future.