The global generation

Today's generation of young people, born as the Cold War was winding to a close and coming of age in a geopolitical landscape defined by the events of September 11th and its aftermath, are the first to be raised in a truly globalised environment.

The rise of new technology, in particular, has broken down old barriers and fostered the flattening of cultures across the world.

Some 15 years after Samuel Huntington first published his landmark essay on "The Clash of Civilisations," the tastes of Western and Middle East youth are now frequently remarkably aligned. Today, young people in the Middle East and the West indulge in many similar activities, adopt similar technologies and engage in similar lifestyle habits.

The superficial similarities between Arab and Western youth are indeed myriad. Yet despite these commonalities, the hopes, fears and aspirations of Middle East and the Western youth frequently diverge.

To gain a unique understanding of the attitudes of youth in the Middle East and compare them with those of their peers in the Western world, ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller commissioned an extensive research survey of young people between the ages of 18-24 in six Arab states and three Western countries. The results were announced at a special forum in Dubai on November 11th.

Among the key findings of the survey is that young people in the West are strikingly pessimistic about the future. Just 34% of Western youth feel that things in their country are heading the right direction. In the Middle East, despite the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and other regional challenges, youth here are considerably more optimistic, with 52% arguing that their country is heading the right direction.

Young people in the Middle East and the West share similar concerns about the economy, inflation, their ability to live in a good area and stay in touch with their family. The economic outlook and rising cost of living is the overriding concern for both groups, including 43% of Western youth and 30% of their peers in the Arab world.

Nowhere is the contrast between Arab and Western youth more pronounced, than when examining the importance of religious belief. Some 68% of Middle East youth say that religion defines them as a person, compared to just 16% in the West.

In this regard it is also noteworthy that 9% of Arab youth say that the loss of traditional values and culture is the greatest challenge facing the world today, a sentiment a statistically insignificant percentage of their Western peers agree with. Likewise, Arab youth generally strongly agree that their national identity is very important to them, while Western youth view the same as only moderately important.

Roughly 11% of Arab youth say success means being enlightened spiritually and 34% say it is making the world a better place - compared to 5% and 12%, respectively, in the West. In line with these findings, Arab youth have considerably more positive impressions of those who make a contribution to the public good, across the political, religious and economic spheres.

Asked whom they look up to, 30% of Arab youth cited government leaders, compared to just 9% of their Western peers. Likewise, while just 5% of Western youth said they looked up to religious leaders, 31% Middle East youth claimed admiration for the same group. In the economic space, 29% of Arab youth look up to business leaders, a sentiment shared by only 5% of youth in the West.

Middle East youth are therefore not just more conservative than their Western peers; they are also far more idealistic in their vision and optimistic about their future. Western youth, by comparison, come across as cynical beyond their years.

If Western and Middle East youth sharply diverge on some of the most fundamental issues shaping their outlook and vision for the future, especially the role of religion, they nevertheless are in complete agreement on at least one key determinant: both groups see their family and friends as among the most influential forces in their lives, with both ranking them as the people they most look up to.

Precisely 64% of Arab and Western youth say that their family defines who they are as a person, with both groups citing family as one of the most important factors in this area.

The two also agree that friends take on a similar importance, indeed that they are among the key determinants in defining their identity, with concurrence from 57% of Western youth and 61% of their Arab peers.

Despite volumes of rhetoric about a so-called clash of civilisations, youth from the Middle East and West ultimately mirror one another as they cope with the eternal challenges of adolescence and struggle towards self-definition and adulthood. Both groups recognise that nothing matters more to them than their mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, and extended networks of family members and friends.

This insight is of potentially great value to policymakers, marketers and anyone else involved in communicating with the youth of these two regions. Even more important, this bedrock commonality can also serve as a platform from which to build stronger ties between the Middle East and the West in future.

Sunil John is Chief Executive of ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller.

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