scholarly journals The effect of the 2011 Arab uprising in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena region): Morocco's quest for constitutional reform and the 20 February Movement

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (spe) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Ashraf Booley
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Public Space ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Constitutional Reform ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Historical Trajectory ◽  
The Arab Spring

Historically, Morocco experienced widespread political repression during the 1970s through to the early 1990s. Through its exploitations, the monarchy regime repressed any claims aimed at challenging its authoritarian form of public space and debate. Encouraged by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, and the Arab Spring, young Moroccans began to organise extensive demonstrations across the country demanding that a more substantive democracy, social justice and an anti-corruption mechanism be put in place. The 20 February movement, named after the first demonstration held on that date in 2011, is a worthy illustration of one of the latest social movements characterised by a concentrated use of technology and their disseminated membership. King Mohammed VI, Commander of the Faithful and the highest authority in Morocco, promised in a televised speech to introduce radical and genuine constitutional reforms that would democratise the country. This article describes the historical trajectory of the monarchy, the emergence and structuring of the 20 February movement and the neutralization strategy pursued by the monarchy in bringing about a constitutional change.

scholarly journals Constitutional reform processes

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa K. Strzelecka ◽  
María Angustias Parejo
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Reform ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Mena Countries ◽  
Constitutional Reforms ◽  
Revolutionary Movements ◽  
Reform Processes ◽  
Heads Of State ◽  
The Arab Spring

This chapter analyses the constitutional reform processes that have taken place in the MENA countries since the social uprisings in 2011. The purpose of this study is to examine and compare the constitutional reform processes in order to offer key insights into these processes and to propose a typology of the dynamics of constitutional reform, and its scope in the MENA region. The aspects for analysis include procedures, consensus and dissent during the course of the constitutional process, and the content of the constitutional reforms. The emphasis is placed on the most important elements of the processes of constitutional change and of the content of the new constitutions, while paying particular attention to aspects related with the power of heads of state, the most frequently-debated reforms and the advancement of gender equality and women’s rights. The authors conclude that constitutional processes are relevant, but not determinant for democratic change, with the exception of Tunisia. The scope of the constitutional amendments has been limited and has perpetuated the dominance of the authoritarian rulers. Many of the constitutional reforms after the Arab Spring have been the product of strategies for survival by the respective regimes and were promoted ‘top-down’ through a process that, in many countries, excluded the revolutionary movements and opposition groups that were not loyal to the regime.

Geopolitics of Conflicts and Refugees in the Middle East and North Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
AKM Ahsan Ullah
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Refugee Policy ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Border Conflicts ◽  
The Arab Spring

Geopolitically intertwined and strategically significant refugee policy in the MENA region is frequently analyzed in light of well-documented ethnic, religious, class, and border conflicts. However, the policy is also inexorably linked to the broader geopolitics of the global refugee protection regime and discourse. This article analyzes the complex relationship between geopolitics, domestic political dynamics, and their attendant crises in the MENA region. The complex set of political shockwaves of the Arab Spring induced massive mobility of people which may compound incipient political tensions between and within MENA states.

The Scope and Boundaries of Transitional Justice in the Arab Spring

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher K. Lamont
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
State Building ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
State Identity ◽  
The Arab Spring

Chapter 5, by Christopher K. Lamont, further elaborates on critical debates regarding the scope of transitional justice processes. Drawing upon the Tunisian transition, he observes that one of the important debates has been over the appropriate temporal and substantive scope of any transitional justice mechanisms. He argues that transitional justice literature may not understand these debates well, not only because it has not until recently engaged with the MENA region, but because the former literature has been driven by legalism, while debates in Tunisia (and perhaps other countries in the region) over transitional justice issues have been driven by state-building contestation. He suggests that this is partly to do with the fact that in this region justice is understood as more than legal justice, also encompassing Islamic conceptions of social justice, and because decisions relate to political contestations about state identity.

scholarly journals Digital use and mistrust in the aftermath of the Arab Spring: beyond narratives of liberation and disillusionment

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1125-1141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Moreno-Almeida ◽  
Shakuntala Banaji
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Young People ◽  
New Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Arab Spring

Through the prism of the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East in 2010–2011, new media has been presented as diametrically opposed to the top-down and mistrusted. Asking the question, ‘In what ways do trust, privacy and surveillance concerns intersect and inflect the individual and collective practices of young people in networks of participation, and their sense of civic connection through old and new media?’, this article presents a nuanced understanding of the relationship between digital media and mistrust. Through the study of original case studies in Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and the UAE, we examine attitudes towards and usage of digital media in creating and maintaining political, civic, cultural and artistic networks among communities. We analyse our abundant qualitative interviews, observations and ethnographic data collected to reveal the continuity of media mistrust as people move into the digital arena. As new tools continue to be launched many young people in the region remain alert to the ways in which these tools can serve or hinder individual and group aims. Beyond narratives of liberation, disillusionment or democratisation, ‘new’ media poses both mundane and surprising challenges in encouraging and engaging networks of participation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

scholarly journals Claiming and Reclaiming the Digital World as a Public Space: Experiences and insights from feminists in the Middle East and North Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca El Asmar
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Young Women ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Feminist Organizations ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Civic Space ◽  
Digital Spaces

This paper seeks to highlight the experiences and aspirations of young women and feminist activists in the MENA region around digital spaces, safety and rights. It explores individual women’s experiences engaging with the digital world, the opportunities and challenges that women’s rights and feminist organizations find in these platforms, and the digital world as a space of resistance, despite restrictions on civic space. Drawing on interviews with feminist activists from the region, the paper sheds light on women’s online experiences and related offline risks, illustrates patterns and behaviours that prevailed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Attitudes of Students in the GCC Region towards the Arab Spring

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Naufal ◽  
Ismail Genc ◽  
Carlos Vargas-Silva
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
South Asia ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Gcc Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
The Arab Spring

The purpose of this chapter is to present new empirical research on the Arab Spring and, specifically, to focus on the attitudes of residents of one country in the Middle East towards the Arab Spring. This research was conducted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has been one of the main migrant destinations in the world for the last two decades. This allows for comparisons regarding attitudes towards the Arab Spring across individuals from different regions of origin such as GCC, South Asia, and Western countries. The attitudes of university students are important because the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has experienced a substantial increase in the 17 to 23 years of age population. Existing reports suggest that, by far, those involved in Arab Spring protests were young individuals. The analysis places particular emphasis on the correlation of attitudes towards the Arab Spring with three key aspects: religiousness, attachment to the GCC countries, and attachment to country of origin.

Orientalism is not my opinion: Decolonial teaching and the problem of credibility in IR courses with a MENA focus

Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 026339572110090
Author(s):  
Marina Díaz Sanz ◽  
Lucía Ferreiro Prado
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
North Africa ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Teacher Credibility ◽  
Teaching Pedagogy ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact

Teaching about the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in politics or international studies courses in ‘the West’ is challenging due to the many stereotypes that inform students’ imagination. A common pedagogical purpose is to help students recognise their biases and work through them. This often renders the classroom a controversial place and the teacher suspect of lack of objectivity. The specialised literature points at ‘cognitive dissonance’ as an intervening factor. On occasions, cognitive dissonance leads to harm on teachers’ credibility. This article evaluates the question of credibility in two activities developed in International Relations (IR) undergraduate courses with a MENA focus, where students had to identify the impact of ‘Orientalism’ in the film Argo and in analyses of the ‘Arab Spring’. The article argues that to fully grasp episodes of cognitive dissonance and attending problems of teacher credibility, the disciplinary context in which learners are socialised into needs to be considered – in this case, IR. The article advocates the articulation of a student-centred decolonial teaching pedagogy that renders subjectivity an object of learning and, at the same time, prepares students to understand the potentialities and weaknesses of different IR paradigms.

scholarly journals Les Salafistes and a French Reproduction of Certainties in a World of Uncertainties

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-155
Author(s):  
Emin Poljarevic
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Public Space ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
The Public ◽  
Major Flaw ◽  
Militant Groups

The new French documentary Les Salafistes (The Salafis) that premieredJanuary 26, 2016, in a small number of French theaters offersiconographic imagery seldom seen in the public space: a stringof interviews with some of the leading jihadist militants in Mali,Tunisia, Algeria, and Iraq coupled with ghastly images of violenceperpetrated by militant groups. The intention appears to be to showthe irrationality of and paradox in the jihadis’ discourse and actions.Unfortunately, the directors have succeeded only in reproducing alreadyexisting stereotypes of Salafis. The lack of any appropriatecontextualization that problematizes the recent rise of violence inthe Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is perhaps thefilm’s major flaw. Despite the directors’ ambition to let violent extremistsdiscredit their own project, the documentary presents anessentialist argument that reproduces Orientalist imageries of a savagereligion. Without the appropriate commentary and backgroundoverview to the conflicts featured in the film, the audiences are leftalone with an extremist narrative that confirms the evocations ofthe West’s moral, cultural, and political superiority over the East.

scholarly journals Credit scoring in the service of entrepreneurship in morocco: Pragmatic approach for the selection of promising projects

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-42
Author(s):  
Mehdi Bazzi ◽  
Ghita Bennouna ◽  
Hasna Chamlal
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Credit Scoring ◽  
International Level ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
The World ◽  
Employment Programs ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Selection Of

The different policies adopted at the national and international level aimed at investing in the youth to accelerate their development on all socio-economic, political and cultural sectors. This orientation is based on the considerable growth of this population of youth from 15 to 29 years old representing about one third of the total population of the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) (Approximately more than 100 million). However, lack of direction and support needed to fully contribute to the development of their communities, this potential can turn into frustration, as demonstrated by the "Arab Spring". In this sense and to promote the opportunities with these young people, Morocco has launched several employment programs like “Moukawalati” directing them to the world of entrepreneurship. From the perspective of successful operational deployment of these programs, this paper presents a practical approach of selection of the promising projects through the implementation of a highly predictive scoring approach adapted to the specificities of this segment of young micro-entrepreneurs.

Prospects of Destabilization Processes in the Middle East and North Africa: Before and After the Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-45
Author(s):  
Timur Khayrullin
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Regional Studies ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Mena Countries ◽  
Interdisciplinary Nature ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
The Arab Spring

The work is the result of a conference held on December 2, 2020 by the Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the topic «Prospects for destabilization processes in the Middle East and North Africa: before and after the pandemic». The conference program consisted of four working sessions. The problems of the organized conference went beyond the issues stated for discussion and were of an interdisciplinary nature. In particular, several conflict points were identified that arose during the events of the Arab Spring and have not been resolved until today. First of all, these are the Syrian, Libyan and Yemeni crises. COVID-19 has not spared any region of the world. For obvious reasons, developing countries have been particularly hard hit. This includes the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The effects of years of poverty, authoritarianism, corruption and other serious long-term shortcomings have intensified against the backdrop of the pandemic. The partnership between the West and the MENA countries is more necessary than ever. The structure of the work consists of an introduction, which reflects the topic, problems, purpose, as well as the issues stated for discussion. Below are the short theses of the conference participants, representatives of the leading scientific and educational centers of Russia. At the end of the work, a conclusion is given, which summarizes the main results of the conference.

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