[jgfoot]

The article is useful because it repeats and glorifies this shibboleth: "So America's great 21st century contribution to fomenting freedom abroad was not imposing it militarily but enabling it technologically, as an epiphenomenon of globalization. And for a second act, globalization returned the favor, turning democratic uprisings in developing countries into inspirational exports for the rich world."

First, the Arab Spring protests were the culmination of long-standing movements that magazines like Time paid little attention to until the very end. When Time finally noticed them, Time wrote about the movements as though they were the product of American social networking sites. It always struck me as a very USA-centric thing for an American to look at the Arab Spring and say, "hey, look at what we did!"

Second, the Internet's impact on global freedom is ambiguous; as Evgeny Morozov points out in The Net Delusion, the Internet can be used to promote freedom but also can help oppressive regimes by making propaganda and surveillance easier.

Third, whether the Arab Spring actually promoted "freedom" and democracy remains to be seen; removing a dictator is certainly a step in the right direction, but it isn't the whole journey.