You don’t have to be a keen observer of global politics to understand the last month of international events has been one for the history books.

A recording-breaking 9.0 Japanese earthquake killed thousands and forced the relocation of hundreds of thousands. It’s destabilized a nuclear power plant, causing the worst release of radioactive material since Chernobyl. Even yet to be felt are the aftershocks to the world’s shaken economy. Japan was the planet’s second largest economy until just last year when it was eclipsed by the rising red star. The order to the world’s largest economies is now the U.S., China, Japan and then Germany.

At the same time this once in 100-plus-year natural and man made catastrophe is unfolding, another drama upon the world stage in the Middle East is being played out.

The relatively sudden democratic revolt in Egypt and Tunisia unseated decades-old authoritarian rule. The face of politics in Egypt, the most influential and populous nation in the region, is undergoing great change. The fallout from that unprecedented event has not yet been calculated.