TOPIC: Political change ripples slowly across the sands of the Middle East. In a region accustomed to scant rainfall, traditional cultural values provide security in one of the harshest environments on earth. That principle has been dramatically challenged by the regions vital juncture amidst three continents beset by extraordinary demographic and technological influences during the past century. In a carefully documented analysis, select two distinctly different countries and evaluate the most significant factors that have transformed each of them since the conclusion of the First World War. Focus primarily upon urban-rural settlement patterns, natural resources, secular-religious conflicts, and ideological challenges regarded as alien to the Middle East that have decisively transformed each of the two countries that you have selected. How are the changes similar and distinctly different in each circumstance?
