The New Arabs By Juan Cole

Larry Diamond's presentation explores the question of why there are no Arab democracies in the Middle East and North Africa. He shows us the relatively stagnant levels of democratic freedoms that have been the norm in the region for the past several decades. Diamond gives us a multitude of potential explanations for the absence of a sustainable democracy.

James Joyce’s “Araby” is a short story narrated by an adolescent boy who falls in love with a nameless girl on North Richmond Street. Every day this boy watches her “brown figure,” which is “always in [his] eyes,” and chases after it (27). According to the boy, “lher image accompanie[s] [him] even in places the most hostile to romance” (27). He thinks of her bodily figure often, invokes her name “in strange prayers and praises”, and emits “flood[like]” tears at the mere thought of her (27). The boy exhibits all this emotion, despite the fact that he “had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words"(27). Therefore, when he finally has a conversation with her, about a Dublin bazaar called Araby, it causes him to become disoriented. The boy fails to concentrate at his Christian Brother School and at home, because Mangan’s sister finally talks to him. The boy, determined to get something for his lover at the bazaar she cannot attend, asks his uncle for money. However, to his distress, his uncle forgets and the boy is unable to attend the bazaar until “it [is] ten minutes to ten” (31). This delay and the long journey by train causes the boy to become irritated. His irritation soon turns to anger as he enters the bazaar only to find it practically empty except for two men with “English accents” and a female engaged in a conversation (32). At this point, the boy loses interest in buying anything at the bazaar for his lover and decides to feign interest to appease the

There is a recent form of prophetic interpretation known as Islamic End-Time Theory. This view was made popular from the book, Middle East Beast by Joel Richardson. The basic premise is that the last kingdom Daniel prophesied as the ten toes of the statue in chapter two and the fourth beast in chapter seven is an Islamic kingdom ruled by an Islamic Antichrist, considered by Muslims as the Mahdi.

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.

There is a recent form of prophetic interpretation known as Islamic End-Time Theory. This view was made popular from the book, Middle East Beast by Joel Richardson. The basic premise is that the last kingdom Daniel prophesied as the ten toes of the statue in chapter two and the fourth beast in chapter seven will be Islamic, and the Antichrist will be a Muslim and likely be seen by Muslims as the Mahdi.

On the eve of the Cold War, a majority of Arab nations were struggling to rid themselves of the presence of western powers within their nations. As a result they found themselves trying to redefine themselves outside of the context of colonization and trying to become modern on their own terms, and not on the terms of their colonizers. However in order to do so, the Arab bourgeoisie, did not look within their own nations for solutions to rebuild and improve their nations, but instead borrowed and modified ideas that came from the west. These new emerging ideas were met with opposition because they stemmed from western ideas, those followed them were criticized for following and emulating a western trend. Although Arab existentialism did

Just months after a radical revolution upset the regime of the Iranian Shah and shook up the balance of power in Iran, Iraq invaded Iran and sparked an eight year long war that would set the tone for future relations within the region. Yet, why did this war begin? Overall, the Iranian Revolution was an unprecedented upheaval that catastrophically changed the environment of the Arab Gulf region. Unsatisfied and displeased with the pro-Western Iranian Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the population of Iran began widespread anti -Western demonstrations and strikes against the Shah’s government. Advocating for an independent culture from Western ‘colonial’ influence, an escape from the tyranny of the Shah, independence from non-believers, and a legal and societal union with Sharia Law, the Iranian Revolutionaries sought to make Iran a dominant force and cultural leader among its neighbors. Reaching its peak in the late 1970’s, the Shah was exiled at the end of the Iranian Revolution and in his place the Supreme Ruler, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became the head of the new Iranian Islamic Republic in December of 1979.

4. Samir Kassir describes Arabs’ perpetual sense of “malaise,” or despair, and argues that it is possible for the Arab states to become secular democracies and adopt the principles of equality and justice. This is characterized by, “chronic rates of illiteracy, inordinate disparities between rich and poor, overpopulation of cities and desertification of land”. Some of the causes of the Arab Malaise is the gaze of the western other, feelings of being left behind, sense of powerlessness and geography.

A revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests (both violent and non-violent), riots, and civil wars in the Arab World that began on 18 December 2010, later gained the heading “The Arab spring”. The Arab spring began by a twenty six year old boy named Mohammed Bouazizi was getting ready to sell fruits and vegetables in a rural town of Sidi Bouzid Tunisia. Bouazizi was the primary supporter for his widowed mother and six of his siblings. The entire incident originated when the police officer asked bouazizi to hand over his wooden cart, he refused the police women allegedly slapped him after being publicly humiliated bouazizi marched in front of a government building and set himself on fire. The Jasmine revolution in Tunisia, the shock wave swept across the country which threatened the stability of this oil-rich region with repercussion felt internationally. After the world witnessed what happened in Tunisia, it caused a spilled over into most of the Arab countries. Such as Egypt, Libya Syria and Yemen. Aim of this paper is to show that the current situation corollary of decades of failed policies, exacerbated by an unsolicited foreign intervention. The extensive consequences, I will argue, require cautious attention and careful management from international communities as well as the Arab human rights committee. This paper seeks to explore the profound causes that prompted the so called “Arab awakening” and the covert hidden agenda behind the sudden pro democratic

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.