Studies of Syrian politics have traditionally focused on the sectarian, military and economic foundations of the current regime or its opponents. There are early attempts to frame the uprising with generic economic arguments about poverty, and destitution with regional compares to the case of Syria. Arguments about an oppressive authoritarian doesn’t explain why the uprising happened now, why not before? Few studies, however, have paid attention to the cultural basis of this regime and to cultural forms of resistance against it. There is little doubt that the series of uprisings that erupted the Arab World in 2011 (collectively referred to as the “Arab Spring” constitutes a landmark in the modern history. Like any other major event in …show more content…
Slogans, symbols and images were inspired by each other and traveled easily from country to country just by the ability of the youth throughout the Arab world whom were able to understand, communicate and report what the protestors in Tunisia and Egypt did. Graphic pictures and videos were shared for the whole world to watch, but most importantly, videos of Tunisia and Egypt expressing emotionally their joy now that their rulers stepped down and that it was viral on social networking websites, reaching to other Arab nations. This depicted the very possibility that the Arab world enjoyed a common culture and a common desire, a common goal, despite all of the other differences. The wave of pan-Arab solidarity that spread all over the Arab world as a result of the Tunisian, Egyptian and then Libyan, Yemenite and Bahraini uprisings. These feelings of solidarity are not nationalist in the Nasserist or Ba’thist sense (they did not call for Arab political unity, but they firmly asserted a concrete state of commonality between Arab countries). However, the uprising slowed to a halt because most foreign TV stations, news agencies, and other media outlets were banned by the Syrian government (Thompson, 2013) from covering the uprising, which forced them to rely extensively on local activists to obtain various types of information news, statistics, images, videos, etc about the ongoing events. The Syria
The push to overthrow Bashar began on social media by a group called, “Syrian Revolution 2011 against Bashar al-Assad” (Gelvin 2015). The group scheduled a peaceful protest in Damascus on March 11th to demand the release of political prisoners, which was not successful. A few days later, 10 school children were arrested in Daraa for making statements against the regime. When they were not released, a large group of protestors took it to the streets in protest. The regime opened fire and killed several. Protests spread from city to city across Syria, eventually reaching the largest cities of Damascus and Aleppo (Gelvin 2015). From this moment the situation has spiraled out of control, turning into a civil war and after international intervention, a proxy war.
“The community’s blunt outrage over the children’s arrests and mistreatment, the government’s humiliating and violent reactions to their worries and the people’s refusal to be cowed by security forces embolden and helped spread the Syrian opposition.” This notion demonstrates that the killing of the four protestors was only the first of many deaths to occur continuing into an on-going war that has: “…triggered nationwide protests demanding President Assad’s resignation.” Because of this, the Syrian government decided that in order to handle the issue they must crush this nationwide dissent. This in return only allowed the protestors to push harder for a change within the country of Syria, in hopes of it becoming the wonderful country that it was in the years prior to the war. “Syria’s conflict has devolved from peaceful protests against the government in 2011 to a violent insurgency that has drawn in numerous other countries.” “With neither side able to inflict a decisive defeat on the other, the international community long ago concluded that only a political solution could end the conflict in Syria.”
The Arab Spring was a series of uprisings in the Middle East beginning in the year 2011. The results of these revolutions are still being felt in places present day such as Syria. The wave of uprisings began in Tunisia and slowly spread throughout the regions, with notable long lasting campaigns involved in countries such as Syria, Libya and Egypt. The hope of political scientists at the time was that the Middle East has had enough of tyranny and oppression and was finally taking control to overthrow the aggressors and institute democratic change. This was simply not the case, as Tunisia was the only success story and the rest of the nations involved had their uprising crushed, or the country went into a period of a prolonged civil war. There
What must first be understood is that we live in a world community. What affects one nation can and often does affect other nations. As a proof of concept we’ll examine unrest in the Middle East. One of the
This video is a very relevant and appropriate source for this topic because it discusses the different reasonings for why the Arab Spring failed. Richard Haass explains the side of the people and of the government for why the Arab Spring ultimately did not succeed. He offers a unique approach in the sense that not all countries are the same and had the same failures as others. Because of Haass’s approach to the decline of the Arab Spring, this source is crucial and very relevant to this topic.
The Arab Spring Uprisings are political protests against the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Morocco, and Jordan. (Manfreda, ) The protests began in Tunisia when a vegetable vendor set himself on fire in protest of the actions of the government. This incident is said to have been the “spark” that fueled the action of the people to overthrow their governments. This region is being watched by every country in the world. The world is watching to see how it will affect their political and economic relationships with one another. Will the areas become democratic nations or will they become shell states where terrorism runs rampant?
In late 2010, a tidal wave of uprisings and protests in various parts of the Arab world emerged. It began with the Tunisian revolution when the martyr Mahmoud Bouazizi set fire to himself as a result of the deteriorating economic and social. This led to protests and demonstrations that ended with the fall of the ruling regime. In Tunisia which sparked the beginning of revolutions in many Arab countries, this is known as an Arab Spring. The question remains what are the real reasons that led to the Arab Spring and its effects? the causes of the Arabic spring May be varied, depending on the places, however the reasons can be a corruption in economic policies and demand social justice as the key motives and protests in the Arab world. This essay will discuss the most important reasons, and the effects of what is known as the Arab Spring.
Arab spring can be analysed using conflict perspective as there was a conflict in the society, people at large had huge differences with the ruling elite and they were of the opinion that their voices are not being heard. So they stood against
The Arab Spring movement is a fundamental event that occurred in the Arab world and a source for contentious debate amongst Western and Middle East scholars regarding the degree of political change and empowerment that the Arab Spring produced; political change refers to the overthrowing of autocratic governments and empowerment refers to the newfound collective identity, empowerment, and unity amongst citizens to challenge corrupt governments. Social movements such as the Arab spring, are defined as collective acting with some degree of organization and continuity outside of institutional or organizational channels for the purpose of challenging or defending the state authority, whether it is institutionally or culturally based in the group, organization, society, culture, or the world order of which they are a part (Orum and Dale 2009, 218). With this definition in mind, the Arab Spring is a wave of social protests initiated by civilians against corrupt governments. In the case of Egypt, the Arab Spring movement is primarily recognized as the 2011 Egyptian revolution. This revolution is characterized by eighteen day long social protests that largely focused on political and regime changes in regards to Hosni Mubarak’s governance. In part, because Mubarak failed to meet the legitimate aspirations of their citizens. These include but are not restricted to political/economic freedoms, human dignity, and economic prosperities. Considering these explanations, the uprising in
In this paper, I will be explaining the concept of revolution, its definition, and application in Egypt and Tunisia. I will further discuss the achievement that took place since the revolutions in both countries and finally will conclude by demonstrating the effect of the Arab spring on the Muslim brotherhood.
With the escalation of protests that would mark the so-called Arab Spring, Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad responded not just through brute force but also by the raising of the salaries of the public servants, the cancellation of subsidy cuts, the waiving of fees and the allowance of illegal building (Syria Report 28 March, 3 and 4 April 2011). In this response one can see one element that the regime has deployed in its quest for survival that of the deployment of patronage to which many would claim that the Syrian regime would bribe their own people so as to remain in power. Though one can see this as a desperate attempt of a dying regime, this may more of an oversimplification. What would be noted that this form deployed here would be considered Patronage or Clientalism which more than just a survival mechanism, it is the normal aspect of conferring legitimacy upon a regime that rules in a corporate manner with little appetite for representative government. In this system of governance, the state is more or less detached from the public at large and is mainly tied through an elite group that would support the activities of the state machinery, because of this lack of legitimacy the trust between the communities are insufficient and to win this trust the ruler would engage in an activity called Clientalism in which he would reward a certain group in exchange for support. Such a system is prevalent in a majority of authoritarian states, especially Syria,
Five years after the beginning of the ‘Arab Spring’, people are still questioning themselves whether any of the countries involved has had any positive outcome or if they ever will. Comparisons between the similarities and contrasts of the different states emerged with the very first agitations in the areas. Also nowadays, the international community risks to come up with generalised prophecies based on the worst scenarios. In fact, despite the original opposition to the authoritarian rule, common to all the uprisings, we need to be aware of the unique character of each country and, therefore, the consequent different nuances that the protests had and the difficulties faced during the transition from the authoritarian rule.
The political cataclysms in the Arab world during 2011 have once and for all transformed the Middle East. Arab societies and polities do indeed have tight interconnections and share at least some important Characteristics. The longstanding structural problems and turbulence in Arab world is due to the lack of strong leadership and irresponsible, incompetent and irrational leaders. Furthermore, people took on the streets and protest due to the vast increases in the level of Poverty, persistently high unemployment, rampant corruption, internal regional inequalities, and deterioration of economic conditions. Also, widespread and extensive political grievances constituted a common causal thread behind all the uprisings. The Arab spring led
The Arab Spring has been a life changing phenomena, not only for the people who are attempting to overthrow their governments but for political scientists everywhere. The events originating in the North African country of Tunisia have led to the snowballing of several other Middle Eastern, predominantly Muslim, nation states. The figurative breaking point might have finally been reached as the oppressed peoples of the Middle East have risen up to overthrow long-standing dictatorial governments in hopes of revolutionary change; change that is subject to the will of the people.
Since the Arab revolutions in Tunisia , Egypt, Libya and Yemen , as well as in Syria mounts to talk about the impact of these revolutions on the Arab political scene in general and the Arab relations - Arab , Will lead variables internal politics which will be witnessed by those countries to reforms in other states and whether led to change in the structure of the Arab political scene in general.