Arab Spring Research Articles

Social media and political protest mobilization: unveiling the dynamics of the Arab Spring 2.0

Social media and political protest mobilization: unveiling the dynamics of the Arab Spring 2.0

Examining Factors Contributing to the Entrenchment and Collapse of Authoritarianism Through the Lens of the Arab Spring

Abstract: This paper hopes to examine the reasons contributing to the failure of the Arab Spring to culminate in a lasting change in political reform and democratisation. The article utilises frameworks by previous authors to explain the phenomenon of the short-lived democracies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as well as provide additional insights of the author in obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the reason why autocratic states are so entrenched within MENA. At the end of this, the aim is to provide political substantiations regarding the failure of the Arab Spring, as opposed to the current focus surrounding violence and civil war as the driver to stunted democratic growth and autocratic resurgence. The article concludes that MENA countries are uniquely situated by their social, political and economic institutions and history that make democratic growth difficult unless as a means to achieve another priority, such as economic prosperity. This can be extrapolated towards analysing the behaviours of a variety of other states, democratic or autocratic, in their interactions with their population and foreign states.

Morocco’s dual realist and neoliberalism foreign policy: An examination of Morocco’s decision to strengthen ties with Israel, 2009–2023

ABSTRACT The most common explanation for Morocco’s foreign policy in the 21st century is the realist one, which argues that after the Arab Spring, Morocco focused on gaining power by making efforts to exert broader influence on African states, establish and nurture regional military alliances against terror groups, and reinforce security collaborations in the Western Sahara conflict against Algeria. However, this article argues that since 2009, Morocco has strongly embraced a neoliberal foreign policy strategy based on knowledge-based economy (KBE) cooperation alongside the subaltern and peripheral realist approach, contributing to the strengthening of ties with Israel. The study employs a mixed methodology, encompassing qualitative and quantitative analyses, to explore the extent of the KBE policy’s influence on Moroccan-Israeli relations from 2009 to 2023.

Multi‐omics graph convolutional networks for digestive system tumour classification and early‐late stage diagnosis

AbstractThe prevalence of digestive system tumours (DST) poses a significant challenge in the global crusade against cancer. These neoplasms constitute 20% of all documented cancer diagnoses and contribute to 22.5% of cancer‐related fatalities. The accurate diagnosis of DST is paramount for vigilant patient monitoring and the judicious selection of optimal treatments. Addressing this challenge, the authors introduce a novel methodology, denominated as the Multi‐omics Graph Transformer Convolutional Network (MGTCN). This innovative approach aims to discern various DST tumour types and proficiently discern between early‐late stage tumours, ensuring a high degree of accuracy. The MGTCN model incorporates the Graph Transformer Layer framework to meticulously transform the multi‐omics adjacency matrix, thereby illuminating potential associations among diverse samples. A rigorous experimental evaluation was undertaken on the DST dataset from The Cancer Genome Atlas to scrutinise the efficacy of the MGTCN model. The outcomes unequivocally underscore the efficiency and precision of MGTCN in diagnosing diverse DST tumour types and successfully discriminating between early‐late stage DST cases. The source code for this groundbreaking study is readily accessible for download at https://github.com/bigone1/MGTCN.

O bill Palmerston e o Império do Brasil

On August 24, 1839, the British Parliament passed the Palmerston Act as part of its global crusade against the smuggling of Africans to America. The measure, which signaled a radicalization of Britain's anti slave trade policy, classified the trade of Africans as trafficking, authorizing the country's navy to seize Portuguese vessels suspected of engaging in this activity. Based on the premise that the dispute between Portugal and Great Britain did not solely influence the fate of these countries, this article aims to analyze how the Brazilian press reacted to the Palmerston Act, especially in Rio de Janeiro. Additionally, the text intends to examine the consequences of this act for the future of the slave trade to the Empire of Brazil, particularly in its political dimension.

From text to allegory: ideological turns in Shamel Abatha’s translation of Animal Farm in the socio-political context of Egypt’s Pre-Arab Spring

ABSTRACT The influence of ideology on the process of translation has been one of the most controversial debates among scholars and translators who may undergo multiple challenges due to certain ideological demands, whether they be political, cultural or religious. In the Arab world, the socio-political scene has been dominated by ideological shifts since the outbreak of the Arab Spring. These shifts have influenced Arab scholars and translators in many possible ways, one of which is the reproduction of incisive narratives that not only account for the causes and effects of revolutions that swept different regions in the Arab world but also provoke political reform. In this vein, this article investigates Shamel Abatha’s translation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) to Arabic. It specifically explores Abatha’s political orientations which result in daring textual manipulations of Orwell’s text before the Arab Spring in Egypt in 2011. Following Mona Baker’s narrative theory, the article demonstrates how Abatha’s target text turns into a socio-political national allegory that embodies critical ideological implications. The corpus consists of selected comparisons between Orwell’s Animal Farm and Abatha’s مزرعة الحيوانات [mazraat alḥywānāt] (2009) to show how translation strategies expound the impact of the latter’s political environment on his translation.

Women's Participation in the Arab Spring Protests and the Prevalence of Domestic Violence: Evidence From Egypt

During the Arab Spring protests, Egyptian women demonstrated in streets in unprecedented numbers, challenging societal norms about women’s roles and rights. Using a triple difference approach and nationally representative DHS data, this study exploits regional variation in protest intensity and women’s participation in the protests from 2011 to 2014 to examine the changes in women’s risk of experiencing domestic violence. Results show that women experienced a significant decline in their probability of experiencing physical, sexual, and psychological violence from their intimate partners in regions more exposed to women’s political participation in Arab Spring protests. Exploring potential channels, the study finds a significant increase in women’s decision-making power in more affected regions, without significant changes in attitudes toward domestic violence or labor market outcomes. These effects underscore the role of increased visibility of women in public spaces in empowering women and reducing their experience of intimate partner violence. HIGHLIGHTS Egyptian women protested in unprecedented numbers during Arab Spring demonstrations. Exposure to these events changed women’s risk of experiencing intimate partner violence. Women experienced a significant decline in intimate partner violence in more affected regions. Women also experienced an increase in decision-making power within the household.

Women entrepreneurs in violent conflict zones

Women entrepreneurs in violent conflict zones Read here for insights from a Libya-based study conducted by researchers at the University of Alberta about women entrepreneurs in violent conflict zones. In a couple of recent Open Access Government publications, Professor Jennifer Jennings from the University of Alberta collaborated with a former doctoral student to offer ideas for policy priorities and policy-oriented research related to gender and entrepreneurship. Here, she teams up with one of her current PhD students, Omima Elkailani, to share findings from a study of women’s entrepreneurship in one of the world’s most violent conflict zones: the African country of Libya after the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

Islamic Movements Face an Emerging Threat and Tunisian Political Environment: Presidential Coup, Democracy, and Aristocracy

In 2011, the popular revolt brought about change in the Tunisian presidential palace as it transitioned from authoritarianism to a condition of liminality. However, following the Tunisian President's proclamation, only the democratic success story of the Arab Spring is under jeopardy after ten years of democratic transition. This article seeks to show how the President has increased his authority by invoking Article 80 of the Constitution. It also explains how this action violates the constitution and has a detrimental effect on the political environment. As a result, Tunisia's Islamic movement has dominated the political landscape of the nation since the 2011 uprising and is seen as the leader of the Islamic identity and democratic movement. Finally, it comes to a conclusion that a coup from the Tunisian president occurred amid Rashid Al-Ghannouchi, the Movement's founder and speaker of the Parliament, showing leniency toward Islamic doctrine. Although it appears that the situation is still precarious, Al-Nahda leadership is once again playing a crucial role in fostering a stable political environment through discussion. The main and secondary data in this article have been evaluated using the Discourse Analysis method and its Critical Discourse Analysis method.

Islamic Medievalism and Mobility in Mathias Énard's Street of Thieves

ABSTRACTSet against the backdrop of the Arab Spring uprisings, Jihadist extremism, and the neoliberal exploitation of the Global South, Mathias Énard's 2012 novel Street of Thieves (Rue des voleurs) follows the fortunes of Lakhdar, a young man from Tangier who finds himself living as an undocumented migrant in Barcelona's notorious Carrer d’En Robador, the Street of Thieves. Lakhdar's misadventures are shaped by regional and global forces which have compelled Moroccan nationals to seek political and economic asylum in Mediterranean Europe. Although Street of Thieves is strikingly contemporary, this essay explores the novel's medievalism: its contrasting of the grim present with the premodern Islamic world as an era of sophistication, mobility and cultural exchange. The essay focuses on Lakhdar's preoccupation with his fellow Tangier native Ibn Battuta, the fourteenth‐century traveler and writer whose life becomes a frame through which Lakhdar views his own. It argues that contrary to the current tendency to view Ibn Battuta's world as a precursor to modern globalised culture, Énard's novel invokes cosmopolitan Islamic premodernity to comment on the turmoil of the modern Islamosphere and the harm done to the Islamicate world by Western neo‐colonialism and neoliberalism.

The grassroots and citymaking in the Middle East: The agency of tactical participation in Amman, Jordan

ABSTRACT In Middle Eastern contexts, like Jordan, the public participation spaces referred to as “invited spaces” for state-led participation are heavily controlled by the state and its representatives. This paper explores the various ways in which grassroots and civic organizations navigate and sometimes manipulate the state apparatus’ planning rules and grids to create alternative modes of meaningful participation in the production of the city. Following the Arab Spring in 2011, local grassroots organizations started adopting “new languages and taktikat” (تَكتِيكَات,’ tactics in English, words used by the grassroots to describe their practices) that allowed them to move beyond direct confrontation with the state in the so-called “invented” spaces of participation led by civil society. Building on de Certeau’s notion of “tactics,” this paper looks at these approaches as tactics used by grassroots to negotiate power and participation within neoliberal top-down authorities. Ultimately, it argues against viewing grassroots initiatives solely in terms of a binary lens of legality/informality or “invited”/“invented” dichotomies, as they neither function as insurgents nor remain passive.

Denying “The Right to Have Rights”: Europe’s Imposition of Mandates in Greater Syria and the Rise of Islamist Movements

Abstract In 1920, the Syrian Congress at Damascus ratified a democratic constitution that would have been beyond the dreams of activists in the 2011 Arab Spring. Under the leadership of the leading Islamic reformer of the day, Sheikh Rashid Rida, the constitution disestablished Islam as a state religion, guaranteed one-third of parliamentary seats to non-Muslim minorities, and promised autonomy to the majority Christian territory of Mount Lebanon. Unlike the Ottoman constitution that had once reigned in Greater Syria, the Syrian document granted the preponderance of power to parliament, not the monarch. Nonetheless, the British and French colluded in the willful destruction of this nascent democracy. And with League of Nations’ support, they divided the Syrian Arab Kingdom into sectarian mandatory states. By stripping Syrian Arabs of a self-determined political community, Europeans denied them the “right to have rights,” as Hannah Arendt argued. The political backlash against European rule transformed the minority question in Syria into a polarized and violent contest, leading to the sectarian conflicts that overwhelmed Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine in the remainder of the 20th century.

Complexity in Subtitling: Interacting Factors Influencing Decisions on Sensitive Content from English to Arabic

Subtitling approaches are constantly changing based on the factors surrounding their implementation. This qualitative secondary study seeks to explore the factors that influence subtitlers’ decision in translating English to Arabic sensitive audiovisual material. This study adopts complexity theory to unveil the intricate interplay of factors that influence these decisions. We move beyond a linear cause-and-effect model, exploring how social media, Turkish movies, globalization and the Arab Spring influence subtitlers’ decision in translation. The results of this qualitative secondary investigation indicate that many factors such as audience age and westernization among others influence subtitlers’ approaches in translation. Hence, it is essential for subtitlers to be dynamic and consistently review their subtitling approaches to ensure that they meet the needs of their target audiences, considering the presence of new and old target audiences of English to Arabic audiovisual translations.

United Arab Emirates: The UAE after the Arab Spring: Strategy for Survival, by Khalifa Al-Suwaidi, and New Order in the Gulf: The Rise of the UAE, by Dina Esfandiary (book review)

The UAE after the Arab Spring: Strategy for Survival, by Khalifa Al-Suwaidi. London, I. B. Tauris: 2023. 209 pages. $115 cloth, $39.95 paper, $103.50 e-book. New Order in the Gulf: The Rise of the UAE, by Dina Esfandiary. London, I. B. Tauris: 2023. 193 pages. $100 cloth, $34.95 paper; $31.45 e-book.

Modern History and Politics: Soldiers of Democracy? Military Legacies and the Arab Spring, by Sharan Grewal (book review)

Soldiers of Democracy? Military Legacies and the Arab Spring, by Sharan Grewal. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. 352 pages. $110 cloth, $35 paper.

Gulf Affairs: The Gulf Monarchies after the Arab Spring: Threats and Security, by Cinzia Bianco (book review)

The Gulf Monarchies after the Arab Spring: Threats and Security, by Cinzia Bianco. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2024. 216 pages. £85 cloth, e-book.

Gender: History, Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East: From Orientalism to the Arab Spring, by Lisa Pollard and Mona L. Russell (book review)

History, Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East: From Orientalism to the Arab Spring, by Lisa Pollard and Mona L. Russell. London: Routledge, 2023. 312 pages. $140 cloth; $48.99 paper, e-book.

From pharaoh to hero: contested constructions of Mubarak’s image in Egyptian post-uprising collective memory

ABSTRACT The 2011 Egyptian uprising, which ended President Husni Mubarak’s thirty-year rule, initially painted him as a pharaoh. However, more than a decade since his overthrow, Mubarak’s image is variedly invoked and embodied across Egypt. Schools, hospitals, streets, and squares proudly bear his name. Social media groups glorify his memory, while locals openly express longing for his era. Unlike other deposed Arab leaders during the ‘Arab Spring’, Mubarak received a state military funeral, elevating him to a revered patriot and hero. This paper explores the constructions of Mubarak’s image in Egyptian collective memory, at the official and vernacular levels. The paper’s core argument emphasizes that during the transition period, revolutionary forces shaped a negative public memory of Mubarak. Yet in recent years, the resurgence of authoritarianism has marginalized these forces, allowing pro-Mubarak factions to advance a positive depiction, idealizing his legacy, and fostering feelings of regret. The post-June 2013 official narrative regarding Mubarak delicately manoeuvres between these competing narratives. It exalts his military role in the 1973 war while undermining his political heritage, thereby preventing any single narrative from dominating and thwarting influential factions in civil society from challenging the regime’s resilience with a political alternative.

Reform bills in Jordan: A Dawn of a new era or continuous missed opportunities?

AbstractThis study aims to identify the concept, mechanisms and motives of political reform under the reign of King Abdullah II of Jordan. Concisely, the study attempts to identify obstacles to and opportunities for political reform in Jordan. To this end, the weaknesses and challenges facing the process of political reform in Jordan as well as opportunities to achieve political reform will be addressed. The opportunities are represented in the new constitutional amendments and the new laws governing political life (political parties and election laws). The main finding of this study is that since Jordan's problem today is not just economic, there is a pressing need for political reform. The political reform in Jordan, as a form of adjusting and accommodating, is the best alternative for the regime to face the popular pressures. This is probably so because Arab Spring regimes with minimal capacity to ‘bend’ or respond to change had eventually collapsed.

The Tunisian Economics’ Situations After the Revolution of Arab Spring 2011

The Tunisian economic facts after the so-called the Arab spring or social revolution have been marketed by numerous fluctuations and radical changes in the general situation of the management of the administrative affairs of the country. The most prominent of these facts, including the series of chaotic sit-ins and the political and security instability that has increased from 2011 to 2018, note in particular the emergence of the phenomenon of terrorism and assassinations. These negative results are too the expensive cost of the Tunisian national economy, which has been directed, affected by all vital sectors of the country’s economy, especially the tourism, trade and investment sectors. In addition, the increase in excessive wages during the first three years following the revolution and the increasing number of random sit-ins that led to the cessation of the production in the Gafsa phosphate mine and the failure to work for most of the public servants represented negative factors that led to a decline in productivity and an increase in the financial and trade deficit. Thus, the budget deficit and the accumulation of indebtedness represent the main obstacle to achieving social and economic stability.