The People v The Government ARAB Spring The People v The Government

Class Objectives Understand the changes that have occurred in the Middle East over the last few years. These include Arab Spring and the current conflict that resulted in the aftermath. Discuss and debate the role the US should currently play in the Middle East.

What Beginning in late 2010, people in the Middle East began to protest their government. It started in Tunisia with a merchant killing himself over the government taking away his cart. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east-protest-interactive-timeline

WHY Many of the countries in the Middle East are led by rulers that were not elected by the people. Although many countries have oil wealth, many of the people in the Middle East are still very poor. The protests in large part are due to this combination of a lack of individual rights and poverty. Many governments are considered to be corrupt, have mismanaged the resources of their nation and rely too strongly on support from foreign countries.

WHERE Libya: resulted in the overthrow of their longtime leader Gaddafi with the help of NATO troops. Since that time, there has been on going chaos in the government. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Libya Egypt : resulted in the overthrow of the Government and ousting of the longtime President Mubarak. He had close ties to the US. In July, 2013, the military overthrew the replacement government of President Morsi. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was elected President in 2014. Most recently there were terrorists attacks on Christian churches in Egypt.

WHERE Syria: Continued protests have resulted in the deaths over 200,000 citizens. Chemical warfare has also been used by the government. The US has been providing a little support for the rebels, while Russia has supported Bashar al-Assad, the current leader. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26116868 Tunisia: Former leader Ben Ali was convicted by a court in Tunisia and was sentenced to 35 years in jail. Currently, a secular-Islamist coalition government is in place. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/02/tunisia-approves-coalition-government-150205123748042.html

Where Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia is a monarchy based on Islam. Initial protests were put down by the police on orders by the royal family. Since then, the government has increased aid to the people and have granted women the right to vote and run for office. Bahrain: Protests were greeted by strong military action by the government. Mass arrests and martial law followed these protests. The government of the al-Khalifa family (in power since 1783) remains in place. The Khalifa family is Sunni. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14540571

Middle East Today http://www.cfr.org/peace-conflict-and-human-rights/sunni-shia-divide/p33176#!/

US and World reaction What should we do now? I am now going to break you up into 5 groups. Each group is to respond to one of the 5 questions on the next slide. Your job is to create an answer that will be presented to the class.

Questions Under what conditions would you risk your life in order to overthrow a government? What role do social media and technology play in political uprisings? Do you think that technological advancement helps or hinders political change and the advancement of human rights? The majority of the people in the Middle East do not have the same individual freedoms that we as Americans enjoy. This is the result of both strong authoritarian governments and religious codes. What conditions will enable the people of the Middle East to enjoy the same individual rights that we have? In what ways could the US support the rebels who are challenging their governments? Under what conditions should the US support the rebel groups opposing their government?