scholarly journals Internet Revolution or Just Fitna: Towards the Tenth Anniversary of the Arab Spring

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-542
Author(s):  
Aleksey Mikhailovich Vasiliev ◽  
Natalia Aleksandrovna Zherlitsina
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
The United States ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Arab States ◽  
The Arab Spring

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the tenth anniversary of the revolutionary events in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), called the Arab Spring. The relevance of the study of the consequences of political transformations in Arab countries is due to the incompleteness of the modernization processes in such areas as public administration, justice and human rights, which gave rise to the discontent of the active part of society, which had initiated the protests. The idea of the research was to compare the causes of popular uprisings, the methods of political struggle, the main actors and the results of the Arab Spring for most of the countries affected by this process. Particular attention has been paid to the growing popularity of Islamist political forces, which have given their answers and pseudo-answers to acute societal issues. With the help of comparative and typological analysis, the peculiarities of different models of political development in the Middle East and North African countries have been studied. Over the past decade, world science has accumulated a significant layer of research on the Arab Spring phenomenon. The authors have taken into account a wide range of opinions of scholars from Europe, the United States, Turkey, Israel, and the Arab states. Aiming to assess the political transformation of the MENA region over the past 10 years, this study analyzes changes in the position of external actors such as Russia and the USA. The authors conclude that the influence of the US as a whole in the region has decreased, while the influence of Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia has increased. Israel has managed to strengthen its own security by establishing normal relations with a number of Arab states in the region. The popular unrest that erupted again in Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, Algeria, and Tunisia in 2018-2021 was objectively caused by the same conditions that had given rise to the Arab Spring and with the same uncertain results so far.

scholarly journals A New Perspective on Middle-East Democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Elfan Kaukab
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
The United States ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
National Interests ◽  
The Us ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
The Arab Spring

Spring 2011 was a historic year in the Middle East and was momentum for the rise of people power to overthrow the long-reigning authoritarian regime. This event is known as The Arab Spring. However, on the way, the Arab dream did not come easy. This book tries to capture the opportunities and challenges of democratization in Arab countries after the Arab Spring. There are three countries, namely Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria, which are the focus of this book's study. The interests of the United States (US) emerged as the trigger for democratization efforts. The US does not hesitate to hinder democratization in a country with leaders who are not pro-Western. It is not surprising that democratization in Arab countries is only seen as a US political project to safeguard its national interests. From this book, we can reflect on the situation in Indonesia. Does that also happen?

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.

Coup-Proofing in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Region

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Lutterbeck
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Common Finding ◽  
North African ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Internal Security ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Military

Coup-proofing—that is, measures aimed at preventing military coups and ensuring military loyalty—has been a key feature of civil–military relations in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) states. Just as the MENA region has been one of the most coup-prone regions in the world, coup-proofing has been an essential instrument of regime survival in Arab countries. The most commonly found coup-proofing strategies in the region include (a) so-called “communal coup-proofing,” involving the appointment of individuals to key positions within the military based on family, ethnic, or religious ties; (b) providing the military with corporate and/or private benefits in order to ensure its loyalty; (c) creating parallel military forces in addition to the regular military, so as to “counter-balance” the latter; (d) monitoring of the military through a vast internal security and intelligence apparatus; and (e) promoting professionalism, and thus political neutrality, within the military. The experiences of the “Arab Spring,” however, have shown that not all of these strategies are equally effective in ensuring military loyalty during times of popular upheavals and regime crises. A common finding in this context has been that communal coup-proofing (or militaries based on “patrimonialism”) creates the strongest bonds been the armed forces and their regimes, as evidenced by the forceful suppression of the popular uprising by the military in countries such as Syria, or by parts of the military in Libya and Yemen. By contrast, where coup-proofing has been based on the provision of material benefits to the military or on counterbalancing, as in Tunisia or Egypt, the armed forces have refrained from suppressing the popular uprising, ultimately leading to the downfall of these countries’ long-standing leaders. A further lesson that can be drawn from the Arab Spring in terms of coup-proofing is that students of both military coups and coup-proofing should dedicate (much) more attention to the increasingly important role played by the internal security apparatus in MENA countries.

The “Arab Spring” as Seen through the Prism of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Negin Nabavi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
New Order ◽  
Iranian Revolution ◽  
The Past ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Arab Middle East

Revolutions are by nature unpredictable and unsettling. That the wave of revolutions in North Africa and the Arab Middle East began so unexpectedly and spread with such speed, leading to the fall of the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, has added to the concern regarding the “new order” that is to come after the initial euphoria. From the outset, the fear has been that these revolutions will follow the same trajectory as Iran did in 1979—in other words, that they will marginalize those who launched the revolutions and provide the grounds for the rise to power of the most savvy, purposeful, and best organized of the opposition groups, namely, the Islamists. Yet when one considers the recent uprisings in the Arab world through the prism of Iran's experiences in 1979, the parallels are not so evident. Mindful of the variations and distinctions between each of the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, it would appear that in broad terms, and beyond superficial similarities, there is little in common between the events of Iran in 1979 and what has happened in the past year in the Arab world.

scholarly journals Conflicts in the Middle East: prospects for escalation in the context of general regional instability in the 2020s

2021 ◽  
pp. 120-132
Author(s):  
A. Malashenko
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The United States ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Significant Extent ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
The Persian Gulf ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Made In

The article analyses Middle Eastern conflicts in the early 2020s. The main focus is on the situation in Syria, Libya, and Yemen, three Middle Eastern conflicts that are progressing, with no solution in sight. These conflicts motivated by social, economic and political reasons became a progression of those protests that have started in 2011 and have been called “The Arab Spring”. These “revolutions” have been promoted by Islamist movements and groups whose activity became one of key factors of perpetual tensions in the region. So far, attempts by conflict parties to find consensual solutions have remained rather unsuccessful. Positive resolution of actual and potential conflicts in the Greater Middle East to a significant extent still depends on external regional and non-regional actors, such as Russia, Turkey, Iran, and the United States. However, each actor involved in these conflicts and in conflict management pursues its own goals. These actors try to retain their positions and influence in these Middle Eastern countries and in the region as a whole. According to the forecast made in the article, more conflicts in the region may be foreseen (in Iraq, the Persian Gulf states etc.) that could form the next wave of the “Arab Spring”.

scholarly journals Middle East: The Origins of the 'Islamic State' (ISIS)

2018 ◽  
pp. 3-22
Author(s):  
Mediel Hove ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
International Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Terrorist Group ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
The Arab Spring

This article examines the origins of the ‘Islamic State’ or the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham or Levant (ISIS) in light of the contemporary political and security challenges posed by its diffusion of Islamic radicalism. The Arab Spring in 2011 ignited instability in Syria providing an operational base for the terrorist group to pursue its once abandoned Islamic state idea. Its growth and expansion has hitherto proved to be a threat not only to the Middle East but to international security given its thrust on world domination. It concludes that the United States of America’s activities in the Middle East were largely responsible for the rise of the Islamic State.

scholarly journals The Arab Spring: The Hope and Reality of the Uprisings, 2nd ed. (Mark L. Haas and David W. Lesch (eds.))

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-101
Author(s):  
Nazar Ul Islam Wani
Keyword(s):  
United States Of America ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
The United States ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Political Justice ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Multiple Actors

The Arab Spring was a series of protests which took place in Arab countries against longstanding dictatorial regimes, because of the latter’s inability or refusal to deliver socio-economic and political justice to the common 99 masses. Protests spread like fire and made an impact not only on the governance of the Arab world but also internationally, by involving big players like Russia and the United States of America. Yet these events were intensely complicated, with multiple actors and layers of history involved in each country. The book under review here is one prodigious effort to understand the Arab Spring, considering causes and effects of the uprisings. Structurally, the book is divided into two parts. The first part, consisting of seven chapters, deals with the uprisings in Arab countries; part two, consisting of six chapters, discusses the impact of the Arab Spring on the non-Arab world and their core interests related to the uprisings. 

scholarly journals Kepentingan Negara-Negara Arab (Uni Emirat Arab, Bahrain, Sudan dan Maroko) Melakukan Normalisasi Hubungan dengan Israel

2021 ◽  
pp. 67-84
Author(s):  
Yulia Rimapradesi ◽  
Ahmad Sahide
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
The United States ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Arab States

Arab states and Israel has for decades had dividing wall for diplomatic relations. The existence of ideological differences between Islam and Judaism as well as a long history of colonialism and conflict makes it difficult to unravel the conflict between of them. However, this seems to change, towards the end of 2020 with the encouragement of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Arab countries seem to forgot the events of the past and break up the wall that previously served as a barrier between them and Israel. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco has reasons what they thinks are rationality that their initial stance in favor of Palestinian independence seems to be waning. This paper discuss about the interests of the Arab states in the the normalization of their relationship with Israel. The research method in this paper is qualitative method with inductive analysis with the latest data from various document sources as material for analysis. This paper concludes the interests of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco are dominated by security and the economy for their countries.

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.

Parliaments in the MENA Region: Between Timid Reform and Regression. A Comparative Survey

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Rainer Grote
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Constitutional Theory ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Democratic Reform ◽  
The Status ◽  
Arab Politics ◽  
The Arab Spring

Abstract Part of a special issue devoted to the role of parliaments in contemporary Arab politics, this article gives an oversight of the evolution of the constitutional rules governing the status and powers of Arab parliamentary assemblies following the “Arab spring” and during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Parliaments have traditionally played a marginal role in Arab constitutional theory and practice. Although the strengthening of the role and powers of parliaments and a rebalancing of the executive-legislative relations in favour of the latter featured prominently in the reform agendas emerging from the protest movements of the “Arab spring,” these movements proved unable to produce lasting change. The reforms have either been rolled back by oppressive governments or given way to a political pactice of renewed presidential dominance which diverges considerably from the initial aspirations of the reformers. The highly unfavourable conditions existing in most Arab countries – with internally divided democratic reform movements, entrenched military, and political elites determined to resist genuine democratic change with all means available and powerful external actors supporting the domestic status quo – are likely to ensure that parliaments will remain confined to a largely ornamental role in Arab politics in the foreseeable future.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document