"Five Years after the Arab Spring: A Critical Evaluation," Third World Quarterly, 37 (12), 2016, 2252-2258 (original) (raw)
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Five years after the Arab Spring: a critical evaluation
Third World Quarterly, 2016
A new political geography has emerged in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) after the Arab Spring. The transformative impact of the popular upheavals appeared to put an end to longterm authoritarian regimes. Today, the region is far from stable since authoritarian resilience violently pushed back popular demands for good governance and is pushing to restore former state structures. However, the collective consciousness of the popular revolts endures, and a transformative prospect may emerge on the horizon. The chaotic situation is the result of an ongoing struggle between those who seek change and transformation and others in favour of the status quo ante. A critical evaluation of the Arab Spring after five years indicates a continuous process of recalculation and recalibration of policies and strategies. There are alternative routes for an eventual settlement in the MENA region, which are in competition against both regional and transregional quests for a favourable order.
THE LEGACY OF THE ARAB SPRING: NEW FORCES AND FAULT LINES
"The Legacy of the Arab Spring: New Forces and Fault Lines," R/evolutions: Global Trends & Regional Issues, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2016
How did the Arab Spring change the Middle East? That is the main question on which this fourth issue of R/evolutions wants to zoom in. This issue therefore is divided in three parts: 'The Arab Spring in Perspective' provides an overview and some historical context of the Arab Uprisings to highlight its increasing complexity and interconnectedness in a globalizing world with various competing political groups. The second part, 'Unraveling the Uprisings,' focuses on the “Spring” itself by explaining the role of internal and external actors, and uncovering some underexplored dimensions. By deconstructing these ‘revolutions’ this part aims to provides an insightful glimpse of their transformative potential. The last part,' New Fault Lines & Legacies' will assess how MENA has been transformed by the Arab uprisings. Firstly by explaining the origins, drivers and impact of sectarianization in the region and then by focusing on Tunisia, the only successful democratic transition in the region triggered by the Arab Spring.
Transformation of the Middle East after the Arab Spring
Middle East and North Africa are for the long time mostly objects of international politics of outside powers. World reordering reflects on the local turbulences. Prospects for the consolidation of regional countries not dominated by the West were shattered in the Arab Spring and in its aftermath. IN short period of turbulences several changes are transforming the communities and international relations from Morocco to Iran. Deep crisis of governance and instability of borders, dying Peace process, the birth of the ‘Islamic State’ and general chaos are spreading through the region. They are both shaped by the conflicts initiated mostly by the USA, but also by their rising inadequacy and impossibility to control and calm the anarchy. Key words: USA, Arab Spring, Middle East peace process, failed states, Iran, Global East, Egypt.
Journal of Islamic Studies, 2014
More than four years after the so-called "Arab Spring" began, headlines across most of the Middle East seem depressingly retro. The United States is fighting Sunni extremists in Iraq. Activists imprisoned for peacefully protesting a repressive government in Egypt are on hunger strike. Gazans are digging out from the most recent Israeli bombardment. People from Morocco to Oman face poor job prospects and rising living costs. In 2011, people in the region argued over which dictator would be the next to fall. Today, activists breathe a sigh of relief when colleagues are released from prison on bail, even if they still face farcical trials. The sole bright spot is Tunisia, where despite setbacks , a genuine political (if not yet social) transition continues. Both because of the depressing nature of current events and the ease with which they overwhelm, Dispatches from the Arab Spring: Understanding the New Middle East1 2 offers a head-clearing experience. Reading it is a bit like looking at a wedding album amidst divorce proceedings. It's a reminder of 1 Carolyn Barnett is a Fellow in the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 2 Paul Amar and Vijay Prashad (eds.), Dispatches from the Arab Spring: Understanding the New Middle East (Minneapolis, m n : University of Minnesota Press, 2013).
The Arab Spring: Misconceptions and Prospects
GIGA Focus Middle East, 2016
The Arab Spring of 2011 is acknowledged as a turning point for the Arab world. While there were high expectations at the outset regarding the democratization of the region, at present pessimistic assessments predominate, given the numerous wars and the return of authoritarian rule. At least four misconceptions about the Arab Spring can be identified, and these provide information important for a more realistic appraisal both of the likelihood of future democratic reforms and of the challenges to lasting stability in the region. • Many Western observers were surprised by the Arab Spring, despite numerous indications of deep dissatisfaction among the people of the region, and even though most of the deficiencies of authoritarian rule and of economic underdevelopment had been recognised for decades. • The expectation that the Middle East would democratise based on a Western model ignored the fact that democratisation was not a priority for most protestors, partly because of the Janus-faced use of the term “democracy” by Western actors in the region. • Despite some shared characteristics among the region’s countries, the Arab Spring was not a homogeneous movement. Aside from similar structural prob-lems and some general demands on the part of demonstrators for dignity and justice, the protests took a different form in each country. • As a result of the electoral success of moderate Islamists and the rise of violent jihadist actors, some observers postulated an “Islamic Winter” sweeping the region. But this perspective has proven to be somewhat awed, as the increasing level of confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites and between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salasts, as well as the proclamation of the ISIS caliphate, have plunged political Islam as a whole into an identity crisis. Policy Implications Contrary to the initial hopes for a fundamental reform or even a revolution vis-à-vis existing conditions, the Arab Spring has left in its wake a region that evinces deep cleavages and that is characterised by violent conicts. Nevertheless, Western countries must not revert to their pre-2011 political approach, alleging that the pursuit of regional stability justies supporting the reinvigorated authoritarian regimes.
State failure, sovereignty disputes, non-state territorial structures, and revolutionary and counter-revolutionary currents, among others, are intertwined within the Arab Spring process, compelling old and emerging regional actors to operate in the absence of a regional order. The emergent geopolitical picture introduces the poisonous mix of loss of state authority spiralling toward instability, defined by sectarianism, extremism, global rivalries, and ultimately irredentism within interdependent subregional formations. This assertion is substantiated by detailed and specific evidence from the shifting and multi-layered alliance formation practices of intra- and interstate relations, and non-state and state actors. Analysis of the relations and alliances through a dichotomous flow from domestic to regional and regional to global also sheds light on prospective future order. A possible future order may take shape around a new imagination of the MENA, with porous delimitations in the form of emerging subregions.
Political Change in the Middle East and North Africa
Political Change in the Middle East and North Africa, 2017
The aim of the book is to closely study regime responses and the principal transformations that have occurred in the MENA countries and in the region overall as a result of the Arab Spring, with the purpose of assessing whether the nature of power and power relations has changed since 2011.Thus, this book analyses comparatively the consequences of the political changes that have taken place following the Arab Spring in MENA countries, not only at national level (within political regimes), but also at regional and international level (the MENA region and western policies towards MENA countries). The monograph opts for a horizontal comparative analysis by theme: parties and political groups, elections, constitutional frameworks, power relations, governance, civil society, rights and freedoms, regional powers, security issues and foreign policies. In order to complement this comparative analysis, this book also employs a typology to study change processes undertaken in specific countri...
2011
The heady Arab spring of 2011 has been succeeded by a summer of violence and uncertainty. There are conflicting interpretations of the meaning, nature and results of the revolutions. This article proposes a reading of the changes taking place in the middle East and North Africa based on a macro historical theory and envisions four possible outcomes. There is a danger that the insurrections, after weakening the nation-states, will revive tribal and sectarian divisions, as in Iraq. Political revolution must find fulfilment in an economic transformation and a social emancipation through a cultural renaissance according to the author,
Another Spring: The Middle East between history of revolts and future geopolitics
Regularly, when spring comes, people expect flowers and green shoots and optimism prevails. Alas, things in the Middle East are quite different. With every spring that comes, people recall the outbreak of the first spark of the current "Arab Spring" that started in Tunisia 2011 and swept Arab countries, wondering what will come after and where it will hit next. After being caught by surprise, numerous scholars and observers have been writing extensively about the "Arab Spring", trying to uncover its wellsprings and link it to other incidents and circumstances, in an attempt to read the portents of the rough and tumble of the Middle East. Yet, I contend, this pursuit is often a vain one especially given that the available literature is not yet adequate to explain the various aspects of what has gone before. Fully aware of this gap, I aim to reveal first of all a number of the missing contours and dynamics in order to further articulate the term "Arab Spring". In the same vein, I will also try to analyze the current political and geopolitical conditions in the Middle East in an effort to draw some relevant conclusions and provide a working prognosis of the future course of events in the region.