Vali Nasr:

Well, they're not connected in the sense that one group is protesting because it saw protests elsewhere on social media or television. But they're connected in the sense that there is a general feeling of unhappiness around the world, unhappiness with where the economies are going, where countries are going.

In the west, we see it in form of a populist uprising. At the polls, the pro globalization, pro European integration, pro democracy forces losing ground to dissident forces who believe things are not working for them. They're not happy with what governments are doing and they're not happy with the economic promises they're receiving.

In countries where the ballot box is not an option, like in Lebanon or in Hong Kong, in a sense, you're seeing these things come out on the streets. And I would say also that if we looked at the general numbers for where the global economy is, we're seeing a gradual decline.

We hear less and less talk about the promises of emerging markets, countries from the developing world, you know, becoming wealthy and prosperous and self-sustaining economically. So the economic underbelly is also weak. And finally, since President Trump has come into office, he has given a lot more latitude to authoritarian governments to do as they please.

And I think in some cases we're seeing authoritarian overreach, a triggering backlash, where we're seeing that that moment where authoritarian governments thought that, you know, they have it all under control and they now can push further, is now receiving a pushback from the public in the streets.