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A newly-released report calls attention to a potential burgeoning jobs crisis in the Middle East that could seriously damage future prospects for the region's young people. Entitled "Missed by the Boom, Hurt by the Bust," the report by the Middle East Youth Initiative of the Wolfensohn Center for Development at the Brookings Institution and the Dubai School of Government suggests the region's young people, already facing high rates of unemployment and deteriorating job quality, could see their futures sharply compromised as a result of the global economic downturn.

As President Obama prepares to address Muslims, a region in transformation and the world at large from Cairo next month, he would do well to make youth a major theme.

We know that youth employment is a vital...