Abstract
This article provides an overview and analysis of the 2011 pro-democracy struggle in Bahrain, focusing in particular on the role of strategic nonviolent action and the foreign policy of the United States. It argues that Bahrain's progressive and pluralistic tradition would have made the possibilities of a democratic transition more promising than in many Arab states, but the ruthlessness and uncompromising posture of the government, combined with Saudi-led intervention and a refusal by the United States to support democratic forces, led to the movement's suppression. The article also challenges exaggerated accounts of the sectarian dimension of the conflict and faults the United States for its ongoing support for the Bahraini regime as a major contributor to the failure of the pro-democracy struggle.
Highlights
The Iranian BogeymanThree-quarters of the indigenous Bahraini population are Shia, yet the Sunni-controlled Bahraini government has long discriminated against Shias in employment, housing, and infrastructure projects
Of the popular pro-democracy civil insurrections which swept the Middle East in 2011, none were as large—relative to the size of the country—as the one which took place in the island kingdom of Bahrain
The following month, in the face of mounting objections, the Obama administration announced DQLQGH¿QLWHGHOD\LQWKHVDOHZKLOHFRQWLQXLQJDFFRUGLQJWRD6WDWH'HSDUWPHQW RI¿FLDOWR3VXSSO\VRPHLWHPVRQDFDVHE\FDVHEDVLVWKDWGLUHFWO\DIIHFWHGRXU own national security interests.”[26]. In May of 2012, the Obama administration announced they were releasing much of the items that had previously been put on hold, though emphasized that they were primarily for external defense and “not typically used for crowd control and we would not anticipate would be used against protestors in any VFHQDULR:KHQSUHVVHGE\UHSRUWHUVWRGHVFULEHZKLFKVSHFL¿FLWHPVZHUHLQFOXGHG LQWKHSDFNDJHKRZHYHU6WDWH'HSDUWPHQWRI¿FLDOVUHIXVHGWRHODERUDWHPDNLQJ it impossible to verify whether the arms transfers did not include tools of repression.[27]
Summary
Three-quarters of the indigenous Bahraini population are Shia, yet the Sunni-controlled Bahraini government has long discriminated against Shias in employment, housing, and infrastructure projects. The Iranian connection, false or exaggerated, introduces WKHIHDURIDQ,UDQLDQSORWWRDVVHUWWKHLULQÀXHQFHDQGHVWDEOLVKDQ,UDQLDQVW\OH theocracy This has been the major component of the strategy used by the Bahraini regime to suppress the ongoing pro-democracy struggle, raising the specter of Iran as a means of gaining support among Bahrain’s Sunni minority and Western governments. Obama’s recently-retired special Middle East advisor Dennis Ross emphasized alleged Iranian support for the opposition and condemned alleged Iranian meddling while downplaying repression by the Bahraini government.[13] Even President Obama himself has accused Iran of having allegedly “tried to take advantage of the turmoil” in Bahrain.[14] By contrast, Obama has refused to endorse international demands that Saudi Arabia and allied emirates withdraw the troops they sent into that island kingdom to crush pro-democracy forces or any other criticism of the Saudi invasion
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