本文主要评介哈佛大学罗格·欧文教授的著作《阿拉伯终身总统的兴衰》，该书创造性地运用了安全国家、裙带政治等一系列中观理论，对阿拉伯国家盛行的“终身总统”现象进行分析，指出了其共有的结构性因素和在各国特定经济社会环境下的变化，对于读者了解当代阿拉伯世界的政治，尤其是“阿拉伯之春”有很大的参考价值。
This article is a book review of The Rise and Fall of Arab Presidents for Life，which is written by Professor Roger Owen，the A.J. Meyer Professor of Middle East History at Harvard University. In this book，Professor Owen uses a series of middle-level theories，such as security state and cronyism，to analyze the rulers who make up “presidents for life” in the Arab world. In the analysis，he refers to the structural sectors of these regimes and the combination between sectors the societies and economies of different countries. It greatly contributes to the understanding of politics in the Arab world. The exerpts on concerning Arab Spring are of exceptional reference value.
