Understanding the ‘Arab Spring’: Justice, Dignity, Religion and International Politics

The so-called ‘Arab Spring’ (or the Arab Awakening) has caught the world -Middle Eastern rulers and analysts of the region alikeoff guard. The region’s notoriously ‘docile’ people, who have long been oppressed under authoritarian rulers, have revolted against and overturned a number of the long-standing regimes in the region and threatened to do the same to others. This article attempts to make sense of how this historic event came into being, arguing that the Arab Spring is the result of an interplay between external and internal factors, i.e. between the changing structure of the international politico-military order and domestic economic and cultural influences. It offers an explanation of these phenomena by focusing on three sets of factors: the ‘immediate factors’ that include the people’s search for social and economic justice, their demand for social and political liberties, and their desire for dignity and respect based on their frustration with the existing oppressive regimes. The ‘background factors’ are two, which are broad in scope: the international politico-military context and the impact of religion. Finally, the article focuses on four distinguishing features of the Arab Awakening: the role of the military, the significance of cities and the urban youth as the principal actors of uprisings and/or revolutions, as well as their use of ICT’s for organizational and ideological purposes which may have significant implications for the study of social movements and revolutions

Keywords:

Arab Awakening, Arab Spring, Globalization, International Politics, Islam, Middle East Urban Youth.,

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