Debate is usually more about listening than looking; but we don’t only think in words and that’s why IDEA is launching this animated edit of the highlights from the debate on the Middle Eastern and North African uprisings that we hosted with Intelligence Squared in London this spring.

Working with Scriberia, and its team of fantastic graphical facilitators, we’ve clarified the complicated concepts to help you visualise the essence of the arguments.



The motion was ‘The Jasmine Revolution Will Wither in North Africa’. Nora Aymen, a young Egyptian, agreed: “There are so many political powers with different ideologies… the question is where is the national agenda?” But New York Times columnist Roger Cohen told us that the dinosaur leaders of the Arab Jurassic Park had been thrust out of the way forever. Do you share his sense of hope or agree with Nora’s caution?

Whatever your final conclusion, this animation opens up the discussion in a fascinating way; and together with IDEA’s new website, which we’re launching in September, it’s part of an ambitious plan we have to use innovation and creativity to get debate-lovers and newcomers tackling big issues with a burst of fresh-thinking.