The Arab Revolts

Description

Analysis of the Arab Spring from Middle East Report

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The 2011 eruptions of popular discontent across the Arab world, popularly dubbed the Arab Spring, were local manifestations of a regional mass movement for democracy, freedom, and human dignity. Authoritarian regimes were either overthrown or put on notice that the old ways of oppressing their subjects would no longer be tolerated. These essays from Middle East Report—the leading source of timely reporting and insightful analysis of the region—cover events in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen. Written for a broad audience of students, policymakers, media analysts, and general readers, the collection reveals the underlying causes of the revolts by identifying key trends during the last two decades leading up to the recent insurrections.

Introduction

I. Tunisia
1. Tunisia's Wall Has Fallen Nadia Marzouki
2. Tunisia's Post-Ben Ali Challenge: A Primer Amy Aisen Kallander
3. Authoritarianism and Civil Society in Tunisia: Back from the Democratic Brink Christopher Alexander
4. Structural Adjustment and Rural Poverty in Tunisia Stephen King
5. The Making of North Africa's Intifadas Laryssa Chomiak and John P. Entelis
6. Beyond Ghannouchi: Social Change and Islamism in Tunisia Francesco Cavatorta and Rikke Hostrup Haugbolle

II. Egypt
7. The Praxis of the Egyptian Revolution Mona El-Ghobashy
8. Worlds Apart: An Egyptian Village and the International Tourism Industry Timothy Mitchell
9. Strikes in Egypt Spread from Center of Gravity Joel Beinin and Hossam El-Hamalawy
10. Striking Back at Egyptian Workers Hesham Sallam
11. Sightings of the Egyptian Deep State Issandr El Amrani
12. Egypt's Generals and Transnational Capital Shana Marshall and Joshua Stacher

III. Yemen
13. No Exit: Yemen's Existential Crisis Sheila Carapico
14. The Economic Dimension of Yemeni Unity Sheila Carapico
15. Cracks in the Yemeni System Sarah Phillips
16. The Snake with a Thousand Heads: The Southern Cause in Yemen Susanne Dahlgren
17. Tawakkul Karman as Cause and Effect Stacey Philbrick Yadav

IV. Syria
18. Asad's Lost Chances Carsten Wieland
19. The Resilience of the Syrian Regime Bassam Haddad
20. The Evolution of Kurdish Politics in Syria Christian Sinclair and Sirwan Kajjo
21. Dramas of the Authoritarian State Donatella Della Ratta
22. Beyond the Fall of the Syrian Regime Peter Harling and Sarah Birke

V: Bahrain
23. A Revolution Paused in Bahrain Cortni Kerr and Toby Jones
24. Bahrain's Crisis Worsens Joe Stork
25. The Battle Over Family Law in Bahrain Sandy Russell Jones
26. Bahrain's Sunni Awakening Justin Gengler
27. In the Kingdom of Teargas Gregg Carlstrom

Sujets

• International Relations
• Social History
• Middle Est
• HISTORY
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Histoire
• History of the Middle East
• General officer
• Middle East
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 22 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253009784
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE ARAB REVOLTS

Public Cultures of the Middle East and North Africa
Paul Silverstein, Susan Slyomovics, and Ted Swedenburg, editors
Published in association with Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP)
THE ARAB REVOLTS
DISPATCHES ON MILITANT DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Edited by David McMurray and Amanda Ufheil-Somers
Indiana University Press Bloomington and Indianapolis
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Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I. Tunisia
1. Tunisia s Wall Has Fallen
Nadia Marzouki
2. Tunisia s Post-Ben Ali Challenge: A Primer
Amy Aisen Kallander
3. Authoritarianism and Civil Society in Tunisia
Christopher Alexander
4. Structural Adjustment and Rural Poverty in Tunisia
Stephen Juan King
5. The Making of North Africa s Intifada
Laryssa Chomiak and John P. Entelis
6. Beyond Ghannouchi: Islamism and Social Change in Tunisia
Francesco Cavatorta and Rikke Hostrup Haugb lle
II. Egypt
7. The Praxis of the Egyptian Revolution
Mona El-Ghobashy
8. Worlds Apart: An Egyptian Village and the International Tourism Industry
Timothy Mitchell
9. Strikes in Egypt Spread from Center of Gravity
Joel Beinin and Hossam el-Hamalawy
10. Striking Back at Egyptian Workers
Hesham Sallam
11. Sightings of the Egyptian Deep State
Issandr El Amrani
12. Egypt s Generals and Transnational Capital
Shana Marshall and Joshua Stacher
III. Yemen
13. No Exit: Yemen s Existential Crisis
Sheila Carapico
14. The Economic Dimension of Yemeni Unity
Sheila Carapico
15. Tracing the Cracks in the Yemeni System
Sarah Phillips
16. The Snake with a Thousand Heads: The Southern Cause in Yemen
Susanne Dahlgren
17. Tawakkul Karman as Cause and Effect
Stacey Philbrick Yadav
IV. Syria
18. Asad s Lost Chances
Carsten Wieland
19. Behind the Resilience of the Syrian Regime
Bassam Haddad
20 The Evolution of Kurdish Politics in Syria
Christian Sinclair and Sirwan Kajjo
21. Dramas of the Authoritarian State
Donatella Della Ratta
22. Beyond the Fall of the Syrian Regime
Peter Harling and Sarah Birke
V. Bahrain
23. A Revolution Paused in Bahrain
Cortni Kerr and Toby Jones
24. Bahrain s Crisis Worsens
Joe Stork
25. The Battle Over Family Law in Bahrain
Sandy Russell Jones
26. Bahrain s Sunni Awakening
Justin Gengler
27. In the Kingdom of Tear Gas
Gregg Carlstrom
Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Ted Swedenburg and Paul Silverstein for getting this project up and running, and Chris Toensing, editor of Middle East Report , for his essential input throughout the process. Rebecca Tolen, our sponsoring editor at Indiana University Press, provided valuable guidance in shaping this study. Thank you to Karen Mills, Executive Secretary, and Susan Shaw, Interim Director, both in the School of Language, Culture and Society at Oregon State University, for providing much-needed funds for the completion of the book.

Most importantly, this project would not exist without the generosity and enthusiasm of the contributing authors. Thank you.
THE ARAB REVOLTS

INTRODUCTION
DAVID MCMURRAY AND AMANDA UFHEIL-SOMERS
On December 17, 2010 Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, to protest the humiliation and loss of income visited upon him by the Tunisian police. What Bouazizi experienced was a routine act of petty harassment, the kind of indignity suffered daily by thousands of inhabitants across North Africa and the Middle East. But this time they didn t take it lying down. Spontaneous outbursts of popular support and action by the Tunisian trade union movement turned the tragic event into an insurrection that brought down the government of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on January 14.
Within days of the fall of Ben Ali s regime in Tunisia, Egyptian protesters were filling public spaces in Cairo, Port Said, Alexandria and smaller cities, energized by the news and images pouring in from Tunis. Wildcat strikes, massive protests and occupations of public space brought down the regine of Husni Mubarak on February 11.
News of events in Tunisia reverberated as far away as Sanaa, Yemen where it helped launch protests in January calling for the removal from power of President Ali Abdallah Salih. Youth kept the movement going. They were eventually joined by oppositional political parties. The regime responded violently to the protests using live ammunition and large amounts of tear gas against demonstrators; fifty unarmed demonstrators were killed in Sanaa on one day in March 2011. This hardened the demands of the protesters and alienated a good share of the Yemeni public. Salih managed to hold onto power for another year but-after narrowly surviving an assassination attempt in June 2011-eventually reached an agreement to resign from the presidency and retire to New York, which he did in January 2012.
By February 14, 2011 the events in North Africa had emboldened large segments of the Shi i majority in Bahrain who organized mass protests and the occupation of Pearl Square in the capital of Manama. The protesters demanded the implementation of political reforms by the Sunni monarchy that would guarantee political representation and rights to the majority, ending discrimination against the Shi a. In the early morning of February 17, soldiers using live ammunition raided the encampment, killing four. The protests swelled in the aftermath of the attack, as pro-government demonstrations were launched in response. On March 14 the Bahraini king declared a national emergency and invited Saudi troops to enter the country and crush the protest movement. A year later, the movement remained in a state of limbo over a year later with pro-government and anti-government forces refusing to talk while state security and anti-government protesters engaged in periodic street battles.
March 2011 also saw the beginnings of insurrection in Syria, inspired by the revolts of Tunisia and Egypt. Unlike Egypt, Bahrain and Tunisia, in Syria an opposition did not rapidly coalesce and engage large sections of the country in revolt. Instead, resistance built up over months. When a group of young teenagers in the town of Daraa were arrested and tortured on March 15 for spray painting anti-regime slogans on school walls, residents took to the streets to protest the security forces overreaction. This event rippled throughout the country, leading to larger protests met with greater violence and repression until much of Syria had been pulled into a spiral of violence that has continued for over a year with no end in sight.
The 2011 eruptions of popular discontent in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria represent local manifestations of a regional mass movement for democracy, freedom and human dignity. In a region ruled by varying forms of authoritarianism since the end of European colonialism, the insurrectionary spark from Tunisia ignited a fiery mix of anger and hope that had been heretofore suppressed. Aided by newer forms of transnational communication and cultural exchange like Al Jazeera and satellite television, people across the Arab world saw the problems of corrupt, anti-democratic government and growing poverty multiplied across the region. A shared sense of suffering-a perhaps unexpected corollary of pan-Arabism-united people across national boundaries and strengthened the idea of the people ( sha b ) as distinct from the state. Thus the slogans and demands expressed in different vernaculars reflect the same core ideas. Citizens are battling to reform and restructure national institutions and to introduce levels of political participation and social justice unknown to them previously. They want to be free of brutalization, they want accountability for those wielding power, and they want to be respected citizens of nations legitimately governed. They want jobs, decent wages, public services, and other basic economic and human rights.
Yet the revolts were also shaped by particular histories and social contexts. The countries differ in their forms of government, socio-economic elites as well as socio-economic stresses, political party histories, legacies of labor organization, levels of civil society engagement, and the structure of their internal security apparatuses. These factors also guided how each regime reacted to the onset of local revolts. The extent to which outsid