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.

Revolution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nimer Sultany
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Political Order ◽  
New Order ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Arab Spring

This chapter argues that revolution is not separate from the very discourse and arrangements it responds to. Rather, it is subsumed in a legitimation discourse, and it is engulfed by similar tensions. Although revolution may erupt because of a perceived legitimacy deficit, it does not solve the conceptual deficiency of legitimacy. This is because revolution vacillates between an event that inaugurated it and a process that seeks to complete it. This duality makes revolution a contradictory concept that includes its own negation because different protagonists deploy it in contradictory ways. The very qualities that enable the designation of the Arab Spring as a revolution enable the counter-revolution. In other words, revolution does not provide a stable, unambiguous framework within which the new political order can be established. Consequently, the revolution’s attempt to delegitimate the status quo and legitimate the new order re-enacts the incoherence and instability of other legitimation devices.

15. The Arab Spring: The ‘People’ in International Relations

2019 ◽  
pp. 339-367
Author(s):  
Larbi Sadiki
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
External Interference ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
The People ◽  
Media And Technology ◽  
The Arab Spring

This chapter looks at the Arab uprisings and their outcomes, approaching them from the perspective of the peoples of the region. The Arab uprisings are conceived of as popular uprisings against aged and mostly despotic governments, which have long silenced popular dissent. Ultimately, the Arab uprisings demonstrate the weakness of traditional international relations, with its focus on states and power, by showing how much the people matter. Even if the Arab uprisings have not yet delivered on popular expectations, and the Arab world continues to be subject to external interference and persistent authoritarian rule, they are part of a process of global protest and change, facilitated by new media and technology, which challenges the dominant international relations theories.

scholarly journals Political elites of the Arab world and their influence

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-115
Author(s):  
A. Sh. Abhari ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Foreign Intervention ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Military ◽  
Shed Light

The debate between political scientists about the "Arab Spring" revolutions is still escalating. Especially regarding the forces operating at the scene. Attempts by the military elite to retain power and try to maintain the status quo at any cost, leaving the doors wide open for foreign intervention The foreign interventions of countries that are trying to use the wave of the Arab spring to achieve their goals have especially complicated the situation in the Arab world. In this article I will try to shed light on some factors influencing the results of the “Arab Spring” revolutions.

10. Middle East Security: Conflict and Securitization of Identities

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Calculli ◽  
Matteo Legrenzi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Strategic Competition ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
External Actors ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines the Middle East’s security dilemmas by reconsidering the balance of power and threats in light of the Arab Spring. Although external actors are still important, as is regime security, in this balance, an important feature of the current scene is the ‘securitization of identities’ whereby rival regimes mobilize different identities to preserve and consolidate their positions against the destabilizing effects of change. The chapter also explores the emergence of a region-based rivalry between monarchies and republics and how they were affected by the Arab uprisings; the strategic competition between Sunni and Shia Islam; and the impact of the ‘Shia crescent’ from 2003 to the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the ways that competition among rival Sunni regimes in the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings has been ideologically shaped in terms of support for/opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Energy securitization and desecuritization in the New Middle East

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 507-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odysseas Christou ◽  
Constantinos Adamides
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The One ◽  
State Relations ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Alternative Discourses ◽  
Referent Object

This article uses the theoretical framework of securitization in order to analyse the concurrent developments of, on the one hand, the Arab Spring and the resulting ascendance of a New Middle East and North Africa and, on the other, the discovery of natural gas resources by a number of states in the region. Furthermore, we use these developments as tests of the theory, in the process highlighting a number of criticisms that have been levelled against securitization and that are exemplified by these recent empirical events. We examine the outcomes of the Arab Spring as a process of contestation and as an avenue for the promotion of alternative discourses through the emergence of new political actors, institutions and state relations in the region. At the same time, we identify the underexploration of energy securitization in the literature and the need for a cross-sectoral approach for the referent object of energy in the widened security agenda. Ultimately, the article presents the argument that each of the two sets of developments affects the other, thereby transforming the environment within which securitization and desecuritization may result.

Les « printemps arabes » au miroir du Ḥizb Allāh

2014 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Mazzucotelli
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
The Other ◽  
Regional Politics ◽  
Binary Logic ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The One ◽  
Opposition Movements ◽  
Syrian Conflict ◽  
The Arab Spring

This essay analyzes how Ḥizb Allāh frames its reading of the ‘Arab Spring’ and the ongoing Syrian conflict within the lines of a global interpretation of regional politics. The Middle East is seen as the battleground between ‘the American-Zionist axis’ and its local proxies, on the one hand, and the ‘axis of opposition and rejection’ (al-mumānaʿah), on the other hand. According to Ḥizb Allāh’s thought, the Arab uprisings should be assessed according to the role that they can play in the ongoing conflict between the ‘logic of hegemony’ of the American-Israeli policies in the region and the ‘anti-imperialist resistance’. Therefore in this binary logic, the key element of evaluation is not democracy per se but the position of existing regimes and opposition movements vis-à-vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and theus-Israeli plans in the Region.

Beyond Resurgent ‘Islamists’ and Enlightened ‘Secularists’

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 268-282
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Wender
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Expert Assessments ◽  
The Arab Spring

This article analyzes emblematic media, policymaking, and scholarly discourses depicting religion within states and societies affected by the Arab uprisings. By early 2011, supposed expert assessments emanating from outside the Middle East, as well as some voices within the region, postulated that the uprisings were about citizens’ worldly strivings, rather than clerics’ claims to transcendent truth—only to shift, subsequently, to plaintive assertions that ‘Islamists’ were now emerging from hiding to ‘hijack’ the ‘Arab Spring’ from ‘secular’ activists. The article deconstructs the oppositional pair ‘Islamist/secularist’, and related identifiers like ‘fanatic’ and ‘terrorist’, to investigate the reductionist construction of Islam, and binary conceptions of religion and secularity, that are thereby intimated. Ultimately, it is asked whether the uprisings might pose a signal opportunity for questioning the constrained horizons, and lost possibilities for human freedom, fulfillment, and connection with the sacred, of discourses that objectify and delimit religious experience.

scholarly journals Defining the Role of Women in the Future of Political Leadership in the Middle East

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasim Basiri
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
The Future ◽  
Current Events ◽  
The Status ◽  
Middle East Politics ◽  
The Arab Spring

Abstract Throughout the years and more recently, dictatorial governments have often posed challenges to women in the Middle East, such as in Saudi Arabia, where woman are still not allowed to drive. Although governments have exercised their power to restrict women from doing certain activities and leadership. If we take a look back at the revolutionary Arab Spring, women were a driving force in expressing their voice through the protests and creating an unprecedented impact to shift the status quo in the Middle East. In the early phase of the Arab Spring, women played a pivotal role in supporting the protests against tyranny and ensuring they played an active part in the protests. Women in the Middle East have often been subject to discrimination regardless whether or not they are oppressed. This paper evaluates the efforts of women and the current events that are developing a new face for Middle Eastern women and their role in the future of political leadership in the twenty-first century. The paper also indicates that women within the Middle East have full potential to become a serious and powerful force within their society if they will fully attach on to the idea of becoming serious actors. More importantly, once they do this and they impact their role within the family, they will then gradually impact social change within their country. What is important within this process is the idea that they continue on the path of fighting for their liberation and change, because all of these spears are interconnected for women to become fully liberated within a society they have to be able to be fully liberated within all of these spears. Finally, this paper discusses obstacles to women in Middle East politics and possible recommendations that will improve the overall levels of women’s political leadership in the Middle East.

The Other Middle East

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franck Salameh
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Arab Spring

This book is an original collection of Middle Eastern literature (Levantine literature). It offers a glimpse into a contemporary Middle East that defies common Western misconceptions and prejudices. Compiled over the course of more than two decades, the featured prose and poetry in translation reveals an extraordinary diversity of ethnicities, religions, languages, and cultures, and a surprising range of sentiments and ideas, that provide Western readers with a powerful new understanding of the rich mosaic that is the contemporary Middle East. The book explores the lives, thought, and works of some twelve Levantine literati, while assessing the possibility of valorizing a greater degree of pluralism in Middle Eastern public life, even as the modern Middle East as we have come to know it through the twentieth century seems to have “collapsed” in the aftermath of the 2010 events formerly known as the “Arab Spring.”

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