Flexibility and Adaptability of Youth Movements

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

     It is a tragedy of global proportions that the world’s Arab peoples, practically without exception, live under dictatorships which have systematically impoverished their sociopolitical, cultural and economic development. A report by 30 Arab researchers on behalf of the UN Development Fund in 2002 looked at 22 Arab countries with over 280 million citizens. It found that more than 50% of Arab women are illiterate; spending on scientific research was a pitiful 0.4% of GDP; 0.5% of Arabs had access to the internet; there are more books translated into Spanish each year than into Arabic in the last ten centuries; economic growth over the past decade averaged just 0.5% per annum due to lack of investment. The

The damning picture of the state of the Arab world painted in this UN report cannot be blamed on America, or Israel, or global capitalism. The blame lies squarely with the dictators under whom the Arab people have suffered, who have over a long period stolen and squandered the region's wealth, just as Communist apparatchiks did under the Soviet system.

The Arab spring has generated much controversy as a result of demonstrating that countries that were apparently peaceful were actually determined to remove their governments and install a new ideology that would be compassionate with regard to its people. Some nations actually went as far as to put oppressors down and to bring reform throughout their countries. However, it rapidly became clear that peace was far away when considering that new leaders were unable to satisfy people's needs and that the masses wanted to be provided with more power.

Comparing to other journals, four articles in this volume of ATP utilize different research approaches and, they focus on interesting and distinctive research subjects. First of all, Catlaw, Rawlings, and Callen’s study theorizes that the capacity to listen can be understood by examining the relationship between forms of truth-telling and the practices of government. I, and it concludes that it is by caring for ourselves that we learn the guidelines within which we might approach participation in governing others, since at last, “the only thing that I must and can truly command is myself. And if I am deprived of the command of others, I will not be deprived of this command over myself” (214). Eagan’s article questions: “what happens when you interpret the Occupy movement by focusing on the bodily and physical nature of resistance through the lens of Foucault?” (p. #) and tries to explain why the violent reaction to the protesters from police departments happens by theusing Foucault’s theoretical perspective.

“In an interconnected world, social and economic catastrophe in one country spills over onto its neighbours” (Chauvet, et al., 2007, p. 3). “Failing States” are often blamed for housing terrorist groups and transnational criminal enterprises, for the proliferation of small weapons, the spread of infectious disease, and endangering global energy security (Patrick, 2007; Lynch, 2016). They also account for a disproportionate amount of civil wars around the world and large number of refugee movements (Chauvet, et al., 2007). Outside countries, and agencies alike often find themselves intervening in the affairs of failing states to prevent “failure” from crossing boundary lines. On occasion the collapse of one administration can initiate a domino effect in neighbouring countries. The recent “Arab Spring” is one of the greatest examples of a “spillover” or domino effect in recent history (de Blij, et al., 2014). What began as an act of protest by a young Tunis man burning himself in December 2010, quickly grew into a number of public protests. A couple weeks later the Tunisian government was forced to step down and within months protests against established autocratic administration had diffused to nearby countries, and Libya, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, and Bahrain were experiencing similar public outcry (de Blij, et al.,

"Stereotyping of Arabs by the U.S. Ensures Years of Turmoil" Stereotyping of Arabs by the U.S. Ensures Years of Turmoil by Edward Said (1935-2003) is an argumentative article that illustrates Americans preconceived notions about the Arab population. Edward Said, a renowned Professor of Literature at Columbia University provides a background for this essay with his most famous work, Orientalism. Orientalism revolves around the concept of orientalist thinking and Said believes that the Americans portray this sort of thinking which entails generalizations and prejudices when it comes to the Arabs. The author provides a balanced view point within his article. Having been born in Jerusalem and having served as an advocate for the Palestinian cause, Said has been exposed to different viewpoints regarding Arab Stereotyping and thus strengthening the credibility of his article.

“The New Arabs” delves into the uprisings of 2011 that toppled the regimes of President Ben Ali of Tunisia, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya. While Cole’s analysis may be flawed, there is much to be learned in “The New Arabs.” With personal experience in the Middle East, Cole gives us extraordinary insight into the mechanisms of social movements, taking us into the tents of Tahrir Square and into the minds of the youth revolutionaries. His heart-wrenching stories make the Arab Spring come to life, helping us understand the struggles of the Arab youth and the ways they united against corrupt regimes. These are the youth who are more educated, secular, and disenfranchised than their parents. As the first

On December 17, 2010, a young Tunisian street vendor protesting an abusive police official set off a wave of democratic uprisings throughout the Arab world. In contrast with externally imposed regime changes in Afghanistan and Iraq, the long-suffering Arab peoples took it on themselves to drive their former rulers from power and called for a new basis of governance in a region long dominated by dictators. While the outcomes of these political transitions are still very much in question, they highlighted the importance of popular revolt in bringing about democratic change.

The advances in social media, have allowed for real-time coverage of protests from around the world. In late 2010, a series of revolutions began in the Middle East. This movement became quickly known as the Arab Spring. One of the main reasons behind uprisings was persecution of minorities, poverty, and autocratic rulers (Hamid, 2011).

The term “Arab Spring” has emerged in academic literature as well as in the general media from about early 2011. It refers to the “awakening” of some Arab nations and the movements to replace authoritarian regimes with democratic ones. The theme of “spring” and “awakening” seems to have been borrowed from the 1989 reform movements in the former Eastern-block nations, such as in the former German Democratic Republic or Hungary. However, this comparison has been criticised by some analysts since both the circumstances which have led to these movements as well as the outcome of these reform efforts seem to differ quite a lot. Yet, the Arab Spring term seems to be still widely used and even found an extension in the creation of the term Arab Winter which refers to events that happened in 2012 in some Arab countries during which these reform movements seemed to have “cooled-off” and particular nations, such as Egypt, attempted to go back to the status-quo of the pre-2011 era.

In recent months we have seen political unrest in Tunisia, Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. In each of these countries the political leadership had amassed immense power and was using these powers to restrain and limit their countrymen from development. The ruling class clearly had formed a political structure with a clear agenda to inhibit the growth of their fellow citizens. In the past few decades, people from these countries have endured structural violence due to political hegemony. Exposure to western media has made the people realize the advantage of distributed power. Hence these countries are witnessing a surge of protest, with people fighting against the system. Parsons emphasizes on the distribution of political power and its effects throughout his

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.

Although the people’s voice is being heard and changes are being made, blood flows down the streets as people are being killed violently everyday. Many people believe it would have been more beneficial if the Middle East had completely avoid the Arab Spring or at least have gone a more passive road. Through the history of the region, leaders of Arab countries have anchored their position to later become rich and

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.