Arab Spring In Egypt Research Articles

Book Reviews

78 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. XXXVI, No.3, Spring 2013 Book Reviews Edited by Nadia Barsoum South Asia, China Turkey and the Middle East INDIA’S NEIGHBOURHOOD: THR ARMIES OF SOUTH ASIA edited by Vishal Chandra, published by Pentagon Press and the Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses, New Delhi 2013, Pp.169. This book explores the role of the army, in shaping the political destiny. He deals with the national armies of seven South Asian countries bordering India. Some chapters focuses on the armies of individual countries, discuss the security environment in which each country is situated. COOPERATIVE SECURITY FRAMEWORK FO SOUTH ASIA edited by Nihar Nayak, published by Pentagon Press and the Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses, New Delhi 2013, Pp.256. This volume brings together views of some of the most eminent scholars and security analysts from South Asia on the challenges and prospects of a cooperative security framework in the region (CSF). Despite strong historical and cultural linkages the region has been suffering from underdevelopment due to lack of cooperation and cohesive policy. ARAB SPRING IN EGYPT: Revolution and Beyond edited by Bahgat Korany and Rabab El-Mahdi, published by the American University in Cairo Press, Pp.349 this volume includes essays on: The Protesting Middle East, Corruption, Repression, and Resistance, The political Economy of Mubarak’s fall, Stagnant Religious Discourse and New Secular and New Secular Movements, Working Class Power. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA, INDIA AND EAST ASIA Managing Change in the Twenty First Century by Kartik Roy, Hans Blomqvist, Cal Clark published by Edward Elgar. Cheltenham, UK, Northampton, Ma, USA, Pp. 307. The authors present a thought-provoking analysis of how institutional factors such as geography, history of religion , culture and political governance have been deeply interwoven with development dynamics to shape the growth and development trajectory that each country has subsequently followed. 79 GANDHI & THE STOICS: Modern Experiments on Ancient Values by Richard Sorabji, published by the University of Chicago Press2012, Chicago, Pp.224. The author shows how a look a Gandhi’s convergence with the stoics works mutually, throwing light on both of them. By treating most things as indifferent, paradoxically, both the stoics and Gandhi could love manifoldly. In drawing these links to the fore, Sorabji demonstrates the comparative consistency of Gandhi’s philosophical ideas, isolating the specific ideological strengths that were required to support some of the most consequential political acts and experiments in how to live. THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE UNITED STATES: History, Politics and Ideologies edited by David W. Lesh and Mark L. Haas, Published by Westview Press, Pp.540. This volume explores the following: the 2003 Iraq War and why the Us decided to invade; Islamist perceptions of US involvement in the Middle East; the war on terrorism; and the relationships between the United States and Israel, Iran , Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and Afghanistan. It also features the US-Iranians relations and US relations with Al Qa’ida. NUCLEAR PAKISTAN: Strategic Dimensions edited by Zulfiquar Khan published by Oxford University Press, Karachi, Pakistan 2011, Pp. 275. This book is a critical study of the nuclear and deterrence-related security dilemma of Pakistan vis-à-vis India. It recapitulates the different facets of its strategic dimensions in view of the growing conventional and strategic asymmetry. It critically examines some key issues like: NPT; nuclear command and control, the Kashmir conflict. THE DOMESTIC ABROAD: Diasporas in International Relations by Latha Varadarajan, published by Oxford University Press, Oxford Pp.244. In the past few decades, and across disparate geographical context , states have adopted policies and initiatives aimed at. This volume reveals the manner in which the boundaries of the nation and the extend of the authority of the state, in India and elsewhere, are dynamically shaped by the development of capitalist social relations on both global and national scales. SHIISM AND THE POLITICS IN THE MIDDLE EAST by Laurence Louer, translated by John King, published by Columbia University Press, New York Pp.154. Louer studies depicts Bahrain’s troubles as a phenomenon rooted in local perceptions of injustice rather than in the fallout from Shiite Iran’s foreign policies. She argues that, although Iran Islamic Revolution had...

More than a Facebook revolution: Social Movements and Social Media in the Egyptian Arab Spring

Public opinion leaders and activists characterized the Egyptian “Arab Spring” of January 2011 as a “Facebook Revolution”. They highlight the intrinsic power of social media as an influencing factor for social change. Undeniably, social media played important roles in that revolution process. However, these roles cannot be disconnected from the socio-political contexts. This paper discusses the use of social media, particularly of Facebook, by the April 6th Youth Movement (A6YM), a decisive actor of the Egyptian protests. It is based on the analysis of two Egyptian newspapers and one American newspaper, between 2008 and 2011. We propose that a) social media provided alternative mechanisms for political expression and organization, b) social media contributed to the genesis and consolidation of the A6YM and to the establishment of youth political identities, and c) the combination of “bits and streets” amplified not just the movement’s mobilization but the degree of opposition experienced by the Egyptian regime.

With or Without You - Opposition Leadership and Mass Contestation in Georgia 2003 and Egypt 2011

Authoritarian rulers face constant, structural threats to their survival (Schedler, forthcoming). To explain the downfall of authoritarian regimes, “transitologists” and students of authoritarian regimes focus on elite factionalism as the key destabilizing force. As the Arab Spring, the Colored Revolutions, and the fall of communism in 1989 suggest, however, aggrieved masses might pose an equally formidable threat to non-democratic regimes. But what do we know about mass uprisings, especially in authoritarian regimes? “Preference falsification” (Kuran 1991) and “structural opacity” (Schedler, forthcoming) make it difficult to predict their onset. Yet beyond this opacity in our research, it appears that we really do not know much about mass contestation in general. What explains the speed and extent of mass mobilization? How do the structures and (re)actions of authoritarian regimes influence the dynamics of mobilization? Critical Mass Theory (CMT) (Karklins and Petersen 1993, Kuran 1991, Lohmann 1994) as well as Social Movement Theory (SMT) (see, e.g. Benford and Snow 2000, McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly 2001, McCarthy and Zald 1987, Rucht 2012, Tarrow 1998, and, for a more critical approach Beinin and Vairel 2011a, Goodwin and Jasper 1999, Kurzman 2004) provide some answers to these questions, especially when the findings of these two theoretical strands are combined. Looking at the many occurrences of mass contestation since 1989, we assert that all of them had their distinct dynamics (see also: Plattner 2011, Way 2011). Most glaring, some mass uprisings were led by a distinct group of counter-elites (mainly the Colored Revolutions, bar Kyrgyzstan), whereas other uprisings did without a clear-cut leadership (the 1989 revolutions and the Arab Spring). Does leadership make a difference for dynamics of mass contestation? And do they make a difference for the (possible) outcomes of mass contestation? We address these two questions by looking at two cases of successful mass contestation: Georgia’s Rose Revolution in 2003 (with opposition leadership) and the Arab Spring in Egypt in 2011 (largely without opposition leadership). In addition to secondary sources, we conducted more than a dozen semi-structured interviews with opposition activists and participant observers in both countries during the summer of 2012.

The Movement in Egypt: A Dialogue with Samir Amin

In this dialogue spanning February to May 2011, Samir Amin, one of the most important theorists of dependency theory and a long-time activist in third world social movements, discusses with Wang Hui, Wen Tiejun, and Lau Kin Chi, professors from China, the implications of the political unfolding of the Arab Spring in Egypt. With a consensus that the Egyptian revolution is not a color revolution, Samir Amin examines the components and strategies of the movement that brought down the Mubarak regime, the formation of Popular Committees and the National Council, as well as the confluence of left forces into the Alliance of the Socialist Forces. The dialogue explores the spirit of defiance and the regeneration of social connections in the Egyptian movement, situates the current struggles in the context of the politics of Egypt and the geopolitics in North Africa in the last decades, analyzes the complicity of the Muslim Brotherhood with the United States, and compares Egypt to other countries of social upsurge in the region. The exchanges explore the gross inadequacies of liberal democracy in addressing the infrastructural problems that Egypt is confronted with, probe the ways to go beyond street politics and parliamentary politics, and relate the current political crisis to the economic crises of high inflation and high unemployment. The dialogue ends with a comparison between Egypt and China, pointing to the need for food sovereignty, economic self-sufficiency, political autonomy, and a long memory appropriate to these two nations with deep historical roots.

Strength and vulnerability after Egypt's Arab Spring uprisings

ABSTRACTFollowing the revolts that unseated Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, a contradictory discourse has emerged in which Egyptians imagine themselves to be resilient in body and spirit but also enfeebled by years of political corruption and state negligence. During the mass protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the regime's orchestrated violence neither crushed the movement nor provoked activists to abandon their vow of peaceful protest. However, Egyptians’ pride in the physical and moral resilience that enabled this feat is infused with an understanding of its fragility; many face vulnerabilities to disease within the context of environmental toxins, malnutrition, and a broken, overtaxed health care system. And they mourn the deterioration of moral principles and values after years of brutal oppression and social injustice. These conflicting views—of vitality and vulnerability—have led to a dizzying oscillation between optimism and despair; even as people celebrate the accomplishments of the uprisings, they are also keenly aware of the formidable challenges that lie ahead. [Egypt, revolution, Arab Spring, political awakening, Mubarak, doctors]

USER-GENERATED DISCONTENT

In a time when interactive technologies and participatory usage are equated with DIY citizenship, how do we account for the return of sovereign power in the form of police interventions into usage? How are decentralized social media deployed as instruments by traditional social actors and political institutions? This article addresses these questions by analyzing the structuring context that links convergence and warfare. It focuses on the Alliance of Youth Movements, the State Department co-sponsored group that produced a web-hub of materials that distributed technical knowledge and social media skills for youth protestors around the world. Its effects were felt in Egypt's Arab Spring. At the same time, similar deployments of social media technologies by US domestic protestors have been considered a criminal use of a communication facility (e.g. Anonymous and the Tin Can Communications Collective's use of Twitter during 2009 G20 protests). Convergence produces hybrids, some of which are encouraged, mobilized and ‘friended’ while others are pre-empted, dissuaded and targeted as unspecified enemies by sovereign/network powers. We are witnessing a convergence of sovereign and network powers, one that expresses new modes of control while setting the conditions for new forms of evaluation and antagonism.