By March, I will have been in the Middle East six times in six months. I am there because it is the most important and interesting place in the world at the moment. In the 1980s, we celebrated the end of dictatorships of the political right and left. In eastern and central Europe, South Africa - from Poland to Chile - dictatorships collapsed. People power and economic reality saw more-democratic regimes installed in the Philippines, South Korea and Indonesia. Today, there is only one undemocratic regime in the whole of the Americas - Cuba.
We have witnessed the courage of thousands of people standing in the snow waiting to vote in their first election in Afghanistan. And on February 2, The New York Times reported on the Iraqi election, saying: 'At polling centres hit by explosions, survivors refused to go home, steadfastly waiting to cast their votes as policemen swept away bits of flesh.' Despite cynical predictions by much of the world's media, both Afghanistan and Iraq now have a much better chance with a more legitimate government than before. Of course, problems still remain, but it is a time of hope amid a sea of hate.
Political change in the past 12 months has been inspiring. Perhaps we have become a little weary of good news. Perhaps it is so good that we take it for granted. After all, we all saw Nelson Mandela dance, free at last. The Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet empire imploded and retreated without a shot being fired.
In Ukraine, a battle-scared reformer, Viktor Yushchenko, after mobilising the people to protest about a rigged election, is now president of a free country. A similar process in nearby Georgia also resulted in a new president. Everyone held their breath as Palestinians elected a new leader following the death of Yasser Arafat. Saudi Arabia held its first municipal election with 1,818 candidates running in the first round, including 646 in Riyadh, to fill half the seats in its municipal council. Women were denied the vote; something condemned publicly by many candidates and respected public figures. But it will be different next time, the leaders promised. A pattern is emerging, one of hope. Extremists threatened, bombed and maimed, but failed utterly in every case to stop this wave of optimism.
Democracy is on the march in Africa - in particular in Kenya and Nigeria. In Togo, a military coup put a deceased president's son in power. This is not unusual, but what is new - even historic - is that the African Union's leaders, who were once silent, compliant and even complicit over such affairs, this time publicly condemned the move.
It is a cliche and sounds trite, but it is true: no two democracies have ever gone to war, and there has never been a famine in a democracy. Those of us who have democracy take it for granted. It is hard to get people to vote in mature democracies. Those who do not have these freedoms stand in queues, braving the sun and batons to vote in Zimbabwe, the snow in Ukraine and Afghanistan, and suicide bombers in Iraq. This must tell us, and extremists, something. Democracy is now the only valid, legitimate revolutionary force, and it is coming to a place near you.
