The “Arab Spring”: Competing Analytical Paradigms (original) (raw)
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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).
Revisiting "The Arab Spring" - Reprint
Eruditio- e-Journal of the World Academy of Art And Science, 2018
The article presents a critical analysis of the imposed construct of ‘The Arab Spring’. It presents an analytic description of a more realistic picture of what happened in the Arab World. There was discontent fomenting among the Arab peoples following what they saw had happened to them, not initiated by them, starting with the US’ invasion of Iraq, resulting in its breakup as a unified nation, the dismantling of its army and its institutions, the killing of its President, and the growing wave of the ‘Islamic Caliphate’ sweeping the Arab world. Egypt is now, six years after the second phase of the Revolution (2011-2013), growing into a democracy that has been born out of her historical identity, the national character of Egyptians, and the unique societal fabric of integrated diversity that rejects extremism and western-imposed models. In this article, I will revisit the notion of the ‘Arab Spring’ which I am frequently asked about. Most recently, this question was posed to me directly during the Future of Democracy Roundtable & Planning Workshop held at the Inter-University Centre in Dubrovnik, Croatia (organized by The World Academy of Art and Science and co-organized by The World University Consortium and The Global Round Table) on April 3-5, 2018. Perhaps this article would provide partial answers to that question.
Revisiting "The Arab Spring", 2018
The article presents a critical analysis of the imposed construct of ‘The Arab Spring’. Instead it presents an analytic description of a more realistic picture of what happened in the Arab World. There was discontent fomenting among the Arab peoples following what they saw had happened to them, not by them, starting with the U.S. invasion of Iraq, resulting in its breakup as a unified nation, the dismantling of its army and its institutions, the killing of its President, and the growing wave of the ‘Islamic Caliphate’ sweeping the Arab world. Egypt is now, six years after the second phase of the Revolution (2011-2013) growing into a democracy that is born out of Egypt’s historical identity, the national character of Egyptians, and the unique societal fabric of integrated diversity that rejects extremism and western-imposed models.
In this paper I discuss how the events unfolding in the Arab world since early 2011, termed as the Arab Spring, are not easily understood as suggested by many western (as well as Arab) commentators and scholars. This is due, in part, to three dynamics, Orientalism, Euro-Centrism, and Modernity, that have a longer history in shaping our knowledge about the Arab world and the world at large. I will discuss these concepts and how they still have relevance in contributing to misunderstanding the so called "Arab Spring."
The Arab Spring| A Revolution of the Imagination
International Journal of Communication, 2011
The new forms of cultural articulation we are seeing in the uprisings of the Arab Middle East are inseparable from the recent history of mediated culture in the region. In the production, distribution, and consumption of satellite television, as well as in the use and consumption of the global Internet, a new role for the work of the imagination has transformed culture and placed individuals at the centers of their own narratives in profound ways. This has led to the rejection of the tired, official narratives that have long dominated official mediated production in the Arab Middle East, and it continues to encourages Arabs to imagine themselves as subjects (and not, as the official narratives would have it, objects) of history. The unexpected uprisings of the "Arab Spring" demonstrate that new forms of political articulation and significantly new forms of political practice are taking root in the Arab world. In Egypt, this new relationship between government and governed-i.e., people in the streets refusing to obey the state-violates conventional wisdom about national political life. Most observers of Egypt have long argued that years of a dilapidated educational system, an ineffectual pretense of a democratic infrastructure, and the continued valorization of patriarchal culture had left Egyptians an apolitical, simple-minded, and ultimately fatalistic mass of apathetic (young) people.
The ‘end of pan-Arabism’ revisited: reflections on the Arab Spring
Contemporary Arab Affairs, 2012
This article draws on implications of the Arab Spring so as to elucidate the dynamics that characterize its revolutions. The analysis builds upon the results of major public opinion surveys conducted in the Arab world, both immediately before and after the Arab Spring, in order to facilitate the identification of developments that shape the relationship between Arabism and Islamism in the context of mass media, the demographic ‘youth bulge’ and Arab ongoing intellectual debates. The argument advanced here is that the Arab Spring consolidates the view that Arabism and Islamism have maintained their position and hold on public opinion and prevailing attitudes as the primary and inseparable trends of Arab thought. The interaction and shifting relative weights of both trends provide the context for the identity, conceptual outlook and reciprocal framework of contemporary Arabs; and the Arab Spring seems only to confirm the two trends as constituting the essential point of reference and departure for Arabs. Within this context and scope of analysis this article traces the emergence of a ‘historical mass’ for change that, coupled with an indelibly engrained link between the two trends is opening up a new conceptual sphere and public space for the emergence of a new Arabism. Such development is also supported by the role of mass media and the thoughtful intellectual contributions that have been advancing a new Arab paradigm which further refutes the ‘End of Arabism’ thesis.
In this paper I discuss how the events unfolding in the Arab world since early 2011, termed as the Arab Spring, are not easily understood as suggested by many western (as well as Arab) commentators and scholars. This is due, in part, to three dynamics, Orientalism, Euro-Centrism, and Modernity, that have a longer history in shaping our knowledge about the Arab world and the world at large. I will discuss these concepts and how they still have relevance in contributing to misunderstanding the so called "Arab Spring."
Introduction to the Special Issue on the Arab Spring
University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, 2013
What quickly became known as the " Arab Spring" is a series of protest movements, reforn1 movements, and revolutions (son1e bloody and some relatively "bloodless") that l1as been ongoing for more than two years in the n1ajority-Muslim world of the Middle East and North Africa. Arab Spring recalls both the European Revolutions of 1848, dubbed the "Springtime of the Peoples," as well as the Prague Spring of 1968. And the events have drawn comparisons to the post-Soviet revolutions of 1989. The compilation of essays contained in this Special Issue of the Journal of lntenwtiounl Lmu reflects on these events from a variety of academic and policy perspectives, and grows out of the Journal's Novem.ber 2011 symposium entitled "Democracy in the Niiddle East."