Iran and the Democratic Struggle in the Middle East

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 126-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramin Jahanbegloo
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
The West ◽  
Green Movement ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Middle Easterners

Many commentators in the West have referred to the uprisings sweeping the Middle East and the Maghreb as the “Arab Spring”. If we take a closer look at the young Middle Easterners who launched these democratic demands, it is clear that the Arab Spring started in Iran back in June 2009. As such, the Arab Uprising had a non-Arab beginning in Iran’s Green Movement, and in what was known as the “Twitter Revolution” of young Iranians. Furthermore, the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt have reenergized Iranian civil society, helping it become fi rmer and more outspoken in its demand for democratization in Iran.

6. The Puzzle of Political Reform in the Middle East

2019 ◽  
pp. 132-157
Author(s):  
Augustus Richard Norton
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
The Political ◽  
The West ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter assesses the critical issue of political reform in the Middle East. The Arab world has been slow to respond to the global processes of democratization. The chapter then highlights the political economy of states, the persistence of conflict, regime type, and the ambiguity over the relationship between democracy and Islam. This relationship is not necessarily a contradictory one. Islamic discourse is marked by participation and diversity rather than by rigidity and intolerance. Further, as the Arab Spring has illustrated, civil society is vibrant and growing in many states across the region. Meanwhile, responses from the West to political reform have been lukewarm, with stability and regional alliances privileged over democracy. The evidence from the region, even before the Arab uprisings, is that peoples want better and more representative government, even if they remain unclear as to what type of government that should be.

The Arab Spring: A View from Israel

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haim Bresheeth
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The West ◽  
Protest Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The Arab Spring

The Arab Spring is one of the most complex and surprising political developments of the new century, especially after a decade of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab western propaganda. While is too early to properly evaluate the process and its various national apparitions, it is important to see it in a historical context. This article places the Arab Spring firmly within the history of pan Arabism, and the threat it posed to the west and Israel in its earlier, Nasserist phase. The work of Amin, Marfleet and others, is used to frame the current developments, and present the limited view offered from an Israeli perspective, where any democratisation of the Arab world is seen as a threat. This is so despite the obvious influence the Arab Spring had on protest in Israel in Summer 1011, a protest which has now seemingly spent itself; it is fascinating to note that the only protest movement in the Middle East not involving violent clashes with the regime it criticised, is also the one which has not achieved any of its aims.

scholarly journals New Public Sphere dan Perkembangan Teknologi Media Sosial di Kawasan MENA (Middle East and North Africa): Studi Kasus Peranan Media InternasionalterhadapPembentukan Social Networking dalam Egyptian Revolution

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajeng Rizqi Rahmanillah
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Arab Spring

<p align="center"><strong> </strong></p><p align="center"><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p><p align="center"><strong> </strong></p><p><em>Massive movement of the Egyptian people, called the Egyptian Revolution, is part of a wave of democratization of the Arab Spring in the Middle East and North Africa.The purpose of this essay is to provide information about the influence of new public sphere and media technology, to the civil society movement in the region. The public sphere is the space of communication of ideas and projects that emerge from society and are addressed to the decision makers in the institutions of society. The global civil society is the organized expression of the values and interests of society. The relationships between government and civil society and their interaction via the public sphere define the polity of society. This essay is a qualitative study using the case study method. The results of this study showed that the development of global communication media has a significant influence on the civil society to develop their skills in using information technology. This has led to the Arab Spring in Tunisia became a successful spark that triggered the revolution in Egypt. Phase emergence of Reformers in the Arab Spring wave of democratization in Egypt indicate that the movement of the Reformers strongly associated with one of the instruments of mass communication become public means of expression, to spread the idea, and eventually forms a networking in a short time</em>.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>Keywords: New Public Sphere, social media, social movement, egyption revolution</em></strong></p>

scholarly journals Spatializing Memory and Justice in Transformation Processes

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-35
Author(s):  
Susanne Buckley-Zistel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Transformation Processes

Abstract This chapter asks what processes of dealing with the past have been set in motion and how they relate to the search for justice and the quest for remembrance on a more global scale. In the aftermath of the “Arab Spring,” the affected countries have been going through transitions of various forms that are significantly re-configuring the MENA region. In this context, a number of new civil society actors, political elites, and international norm entrepreneurs are engaging with the lengthy histories of repression in the respective countries as well as with the violence that occurred during the Arab Spring in order to reckon with the legacy of human rights abuses (Sriram, Transitional justice in the middle East and North Africa, Hurst, London, 2017). These transitions to justice are not without obstacles and challenges, though. The objective of her chapter is therefore not to tell the stories of various transitional justice and memory projects in post-Arab Spring countries, but to situate such practices in time and space.

(Cooperation with the Middle East after the Arab Spring: Circumstantial Changes and Implications)

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baran Han ◽  
Pil Soo Choi ◽  
Seo-Young Yun ◽  
Sung Hyun Son ◽  
Jaeeun Park ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
The Arab Spring

Critical International Relations Theories and the Study of Arab Uprisings: A Critique

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-150
Author(s):  
Ahmed M. Abozaid
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Other ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Western Perspective

This study articulates that most of the critical theorists are still strikingly neglecting the study of the Arab Uprising(s) adequately. After almost a decade of the eruption of the so-called Arab Uprisings, the study claims that the volume of scholarly engaging of dominate Western International Relations (IR) theories with such unprecedented events is still substantially unpretentious. Likewise, and most importantly, the study also indicates that most of these theories, including the critical theory of IR (both Frankfurt and Habermasian versions), have discussed, engaged, analysed, and interpreted the Arab Spring (a term usually perceived to be orientalist, troubling, totally inappropriate and passive phenomenon) indicate a strong and durable egoistic Western perspective that emphasis on the preservation of the status quo and ensure the interests of Western and neoliberal elites, and the robustness of counter-revolutionary regimes. On the other hand, the writings and scholarships that reflexively engaged and represent the authentic Arab views, interests, and prospects were clearly demonstrating a strong and durable scarce, if not entirely missing. Keywords: International Relations, Critical Theory, Postcolonial, Arab Uprising(s), Middle East, Revolutions.

The meta-geography of the Middle East and North Africa in Turkey’s new geopolitical imagination

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 431-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aylin Güney ◽  
Nazif Mandacı
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Critical Geopolitics ◽  
Syrian Crisis ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Geopolitical Imaginations

This article critically analyses Turkish security discourses connected to the meta-geography of the Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) before and after the developments of the Arab Spring. A critical geopolitics approach and critical security theories in international relations provide the theoretical framework, as security discourses are considered to be a product of geopolitical imaginations and codes that, in turn, shape the making of foreign and security policies. First, the article examines the invention of BMENA as a meta-geography within Turkey’s new geopolitical imagination, as well as the new geopolitical codes underlying the new security discourses. Then, the article assesses the impact of the Arab Spring, which led to major changes in Turkey’s newly established geopolitical codes, formulated in the pre-Arab Spring period, and analyses the ruptures and continuities in Turkey’s security discourses in the light of those developments. Finally, the article concludes that the Arab Spring, especially the Syrian crisis, shifted the focus of Turkey’s foreign policy in BMENA from cooperation to conflict. This has led to a resecuritization of Turkey’s geopolitical codes, discourses and security practices in the region, revealing the limitation of Turkey’s current geopolitical imagination.

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