The 2011 uprisings sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa have rendered the old bargain with local autocrats obsolete. The Arab awakening is likely to revive pro-democracy movements in some countries of the region and cause new identities to surface among others. The Obama administration considers the counter-narrative of peaceful democratic change the most effective way to undermine the ability of terrorist groups and networks, such as al-Qaeda, to operate and recruit. This is a safe bet, even as the region’s complexity presents problems to its enduring success. We argue that the right to depose unjust rulers, recognized as one of the central tenets of many Islamic teachings, should be exercised by local people. Military intervention and the global campaign against terrorism are costly, destabilizing, and counter-productive. It is important to understand the limits to military solutions and seek multilateral legal and political solutions in confronting terrorism. It should also be noted that the use of force can be justified on humanitarian grounds in the cases of massacre and ethnic cleansing.