The Unfinished Arab Spring

The Unfinished Arab Spring
Author: Fatima El Issawi
Publisher: Gingko Library
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020-08-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781909942486

The aim of this volume is to adopt an original analytical approach in explaining various dynamics at work behind the Arab Spring, through giving voice to local dynamics and legacies rather than concentrating on debates about paradigms. It highlights micro-perspectives of change and resistance—as well of contentious politics—that are often marginalized and left unexplored in favor of macro-analyses. First, the story of the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Morocco and Algeria is told through diverse and novel perspectives, looking at factors that have not yet been sufficiently underlined, but carry explanatory power for what has occurred. Second, rather than focusing on macro-comparative regional trends, the contributors to this book focus on the particularities of each country, highlighting distinctive micro-dynamics of change and continuity. The essays collected here are contributions from renowned writers and researchers from the Middle East and North Africa, along with Western experts, brought together to form a sophisticated dialogic exchange.

Continuity and change before and after the Arab uprisings

Continuity and change before and after the Arab uprisings
Author: Paola Rivetti
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2017-10-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317374355

The Arab uprisings of 2011 have sparked much scholarly discussion with regards to democratisation, the resilience of authoritarian rule, mobilisation patterns, and the relationship between secularism and Islam, all under the assumption that politics has changed for good in North Africa and the Middle East. While acknowledging the post-2011 transformations taking place in the region, this book brings to the forefront an understudied, yet crucial, aspect related to the uprisings, namely the interplay between continuity and change. Challenging simplified representations built around the positions that either ‘all has changed’ or ‘nothing has changed’, the in-depth case studies in this volume demonstrate how elements both of continuity, and rupture with the past, are present in the post-uprising landscapes of Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. Public policy, contentious politics, the process of institution making and re-making, and the relations of power connecting national and international economies are at the core of the comparative investigations included in the book. The volume makes an important contribution to the study of North African politics, and to the study of political change and stability, by contrasting the different trajectories of the uprisings, and by offering theoretical reflections on their meaning, consequences and scope. This book was originally published as a special issue of the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.

Jordan and the Arab Uprisings

Jordan and the Arab Uprisings
Author: Curtis R. Ryan
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2018-06-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0231546564

In 2011, as the Arab uprisings spread across the Middle East, Jordan remained more stable than any of its neighbors. Despite strife at its borders and an influx of refugees connected to the Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS, as well as its own version of the Arab Spring with protests and popular mobilization demanding change, Jordan managed to avoid political upheaval. How did the regime survive in the face of the pressures unleashed by the Arab uprisings? What does its resilience tell us about the prospects for reform or revolutionary change? In Jordan and the Arab Uprisings, Curtis R. Ryan explains how Jordan weathered the turmoil of the Arab Spring. Crossing divides between state and society, government and opposition, Ryan analyzes key features of Jordanian politics, including Islamist and leftist opposition parties, youth movements, and other forms of activism, as well as struggles over elections, reform, and identity. He details regime survival strategies, laying out how the monarchy has held out the possibility of reform while also seeking to coopt and contain its opponents. Ryan demonstrates how domestic politics were affected by both regional unrest and international support for the regime, and how regime survival and security concerns trumped hopes for greater change. While the Arab Spring may be over, Ryan shows that political activism in Jordan is not, and that struggles for reform and change will continue. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and interviews with a vast range of people, from grassroots activists to King Abdullah II, Jordan and the Arab Uprisings is a definitive analysis of Jordanian politics before, during, and beyond the Arab uprisings.

False Dawn

False Dawn
Author: Steven A. Cook
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2017
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190611413

In False Dawn, noted Middle East regional expert Steven A. Cook offers a sweeping narrative account of the tumultuous past half decade, moving from Turkey to Tunisia to Egypt to Libya and beyond. The result is a powerful explanation of why the Arab Spring failed.

What Is Enlightenment?

What Is Enlightenment?
Author: Mohammed D. Cherkaoui
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2016-04-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0739193686

Political sociology has struggled with predicting the next turn of transformation in the MENA countries after the 2011 Uprisings. Arab activists did not articulate explicitly any modalities of their desired system, although their slogans ushered to a fully-democratic society. These unguided Uprisings showcase an open-ended freedom-to question after Arabs underwent their freedom-from struggle from authoritarianism. The new conflicts in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Libya have fragmented shar’iya (legitimacy) into distinct conceptualizations: “revolutionary legitimacy,” “electoral legitimacy,” “legitimacy of the street,” and “consensual legitimacy.” This volume examines whether the Uprisings would introduce a replica of the European Enlightenment or rather stimulate an Arab/Islamic awakening with its own cultural specificity and political philosophy. By placing Immanuel Kant in Tahrir Square, this book adopts a comparative analysis of two enlightenment projects: one Arab, still under construction, with possible progression toward modernity or regression toward neo-authoritarianism, and one European, shaped by the past two centuries. Mohammed D. Cherkaoui and the contributing authors use a hybrid theoretical framework drawing on three tanwiri (enlightenment) philosophers from different eras: Ibn Rushd, known in the west as Averroes (the twelfth century), Immanuel Kant (the eighteenth century), and Mohamed Abed Al-Jabri (the twentieth century). The authors propose a few projections about the outcome of the competition between an Islamocracy vision and what Cherkaoui terms as a Demoslamic vision, since it implies the Islamist movements’ flexibility to reconcile their religious absolutism with the prerequisites of liberal democracy. This book also traces the patterns of change which point to a possible Arab Axial Age. It ends with the trials of modernity and tradition in Tunisia and an imaginary speech Kant would deliver at the Tunisian Parliament after those vibrant debates of the new constitution in 2014.

The Arab Spring

The Arab Spring
Author: Jason Brownlee
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2015
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199660069

Several years after the Arab Spring began, democracy remains elusive in the Middle East. While Tunisia has made progress towards democracy, other countries that overthrew their rulers - Egypt, Yemen, and Libya - remain in authoritarianism and instability. This volume provides a foundational exploration of the Arab Spring's successes and failures.

Libya

Libya
Author: Ronald Bruce St John
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2015-05-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1135036543

Retaining the conceptual framework of the first edition through emphasis on the dual themes of continuity and change, the second edition of Libya is revised and updated to include discussion of key developments since 2010, including: The February 17 Revolution and the death of Muammar al-Qaddafi. The political process which evolved in the course of the February 17 Revolution and led to General National Congress elections in July 2012, Constitutional Assembly elections in February 2014, and House of Representative elections in June 2014. Post-Qaddafi economic policy from the National Transitional Council through successive interim transitional governments. Post-Qaddafi foreign policy. The on-going process of drafting a new constitution which will be followed by the election of a Parliament and a President. Providing a comprehensive overview of the Libyan uprising, seen to be the exception to the Arab Spring, and highlighting the issues facing contemporary Libya, this book is an important text for students and scholars of History, North Africa and the Middle East as well as the non-specialist with an interest in current affairs.

Arab Spring in Berlin and Paris: German and French Foreign Policy Between Continuity and Change

Arab Spring in Berlin and Paris: German and French Foreign Policy Between Continuity and Change
Author: Nurettin Yigit
Publisher: Anchor Academic Publishing (aap_verlag)
Total Pages: 81
Release: 2015
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3954893525

The Arab Spring has not only affected the well-established structures in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) but became also a touchstone for the German and French foreign policy. A lasting three-year transformation process turned out to be an unpredictable factor for the traditional German and French foreign policy principles within a novel geopolitical environment. In this respect, this study deals with the comparative foreign policy analysis of Germany and France with regard to the transformations in the MENA since 2011. Analaysis is done on the basis of constructivist role theory in connection with the Civilian Power concept. Major interest of this study is dedicated to the analysis of the foreign policy repertoire and identity of Germany and France towards the transition countries in North Africa. A question is to be answered if the challenges provoke continuity or change.

Where Did the Revolution Go?

Where Did the Revolution Go?
Author: Donatella della Porta
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2016-11-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1316802582

Where Did the Revolution Go? considers the apparent disappearance of the large social movements that have contributed to democratization. Revived by recent events of the Arab Spring, this question is once again paramount. Is the disappearance real, given the focus of mass media and scholarship on electoral processes and 'normal politics'? Does it always happen, or only under certain circumstances? Are those who struggled for change destined to be disappointed by the slow pace of transformation? Which mechanisms are activated and deactivated during the rise and fall of democratization? This volume addresses these questions through empirical analysis based on quantitative and qualitative methods (including oral history) of cases in two waves of democratization: Central Eastern European cases in 1989 as well as cases in the Middle East and Mediterranean region in 2011.

Obama and the Middle East

Obama and the Middle East
Author: Fawaz A. Gerges
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2012-05-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137000163

A hard-hitting assessment of Obama's current foreign policy and a sweeping look at the future of the Middle East The 2011 Arab Spring upended the status quo in the Middle East and poses new challenges for the United States. Here, Fawaz Gerges, one of the world's top Middle East scholars, delivers a full picture of US relations with the region. He reaches back to the post-World War II era to explain the issues that have challenged the Obama administration and examines the president's responses, from his negotiations with Israel and Palestine to his drawdown from Afghanistan and withdrawal from Iraq. Evaluating the president's engagement with the Arab Spring, his decision to order the death of Osama bin Laden, his intervention in Libya, his relations with Iran, and other key policy matters, Gerges highlights what must change in order to improve US outcomes in the region. Gerges' conclusion is sobering: the United States is near the end of its moment in the Middle East. The cynically realist policy it has employed since World War II-continued by the Obama administration--is at the root of current bitterness and mistrust, and it is time to remake American foreign policy.