The Arab Spring

WHAT IS THE ‘ARAB SPRING?’ BEGAN IN 2010/2011 AND IS STILL HAPPENING NOW! PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTERS ACROSS NORTH AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST ROSE UP AGAINST THE DICTATORIAL REGIMES THAT RULED THEIR HOME COUNTRIES.

HOW DID THE ‘ARAB SPRING’ BEGIN? BEGAN IN TUNISIA IN DEC. 2010 WHEN A YOUNG STREET VENDOR SET HIMSELF ON FIRE AFTER A POLICEWOMAN CONFISCATED HIS UNLICENSED VEGETABLE CART AND ITS GOODS. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16212447 http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/index.cfm/articles/The-Arab-Spring-and-the-Future-of-US-Interests/2011/8/2 Public anger was prompted by the suicide of a young, unemployed man, Mohamed Bouazizi, who set fire to himself on 17 December 2010 after officials had blocked his attempts to make a living selling vegetables

COUNTRIES THE ‘ARAB SPRING’ HAS IMPACTED TUNISIA JORDAN EGYPT SYRIA LIBYA MOROCCO IRAN ALGERIA BAHRAIN SAUDI ARABIA YEMEN OMAN

EGYPT LEADER: PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK, IN POWER FOR 30 YEARS. LEFT OFFICE AFTER 18 DAYS OF PROTESTS IN THE CAPITAL OF CAIRO. HE WAS FOUND GUILTY OF CORRUPTION BUT THIS WAS LATER OVERTURNED. HE WAS RELEASED IN MARCH 2017.

EGYPT SINCE ARAB SPRING A MILITARY REGIME TOOK CONTROL AFTER MUBARAK WAS OUSTED. A NUMBER OF PRESIDENTS HAVE BEEN ELECTED AND DEPOSED SINCE BUT EGYPT CONTINUES TO SUFFER FROM: UNEMPLOYMENT & LABOR STRIKES POLITICAL UNCERTAINTY & PROTEST DISTRUST BETWEEN ISLAMIST & SECULAR PARTIES AN ISIS-LINKED INSURGENCY MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN TENSION

LIBYA LEADER: COLONEL MUAMMAR GADDAFI WAS IN POWER FOR 40 YEARS. HE WAS OUSTED BY REBELS IN AUGUST OF 2011. AFTER AN 8 MONTH CIVIL WAR GADDAFI WAS CAPTURED AND KILLED.

LIBYA SINCE ARAB SPRING LIBYA HAS FAILED TO CREATE A FUNCTIONING GOVERNMENT. LIBYA IS CURRENTLY CONTROLLED BY ARMED MILITIA GROUPS, TRIBAL RIVALRIES, WARLORDS AND A UN SANCTIONED “UNITY GOVERNMENT”. CRIME IS HIGH AND THE CONCEPT OF LAW AND ORDER SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE. THERE IS ALSO A REFUGEE CRISIS OF LIBYANS TRYING TO ESCAPE ACROSS THE MEDITERRANEAN TO EUROPE. LIBYA’S ECONOMY IS IN TERRIBLE CONDITION AS ITS OIL EXPORTS HAVE DECLINED BY NEARLY 90 PER CENT SINCE 2011.

SYRIA LEADER: BASHAR AL-ASSAD, IN POWER SINCE 2000 (INHERITED POWER FROM HIS FATHER). CIVIL WAR SINCE 2011 IN WHICH NEARLY ½ MILLION SYRIANS HAVE BEEN KILLED. REBELS ARE CALLING FOR POLITICAL FREEDOM, AN END TO CORRUPTION, & ACTION ON POVERTY. SYRIAN GOVT. CLAIMS THE PROTESTORS ARE ‘TERRORISTS AND ARMED GANGS’. THE U.S. AND EU HAVE IMPOSED SANCTIONS ON SYRIA, BUT THE CONFLICT HAS NOT ENDED.

SYRIA TODAY CURRENTLY IN A CIVIL WAR GOVERNMENT IS FIGHTING: A NUMBER OF REBEL GROUPS: SOME SUPPORTED BY U.S. ISIS GOVERNMENT SUPPORTED BY: RUSSIA & IRAN US SUPPORTS SOME REBEL GROUPS FIGHTING ISIS

OTHER POTENTIAL ARAB SPRING TARGETS MONARCHIES: SAUDI ARABIA UAE QATAR POTENTIAL TARGETS FOR ARAB SPRING MOVEMENTS OPPOSITION MOVEMENTS ARE BANNED. THE KINGS SUPPORT THE OTHER MIDDLE EASTERN LEADERS AND SUPPLIES THEM WITH SOLDIERS TO PUT DOWN PROTESTERS.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW? MANY OF THESE COUNTRIES HAVE TO DECIDE WHAT TYPES OF GOVERNMENTS THEY WANT, NOW THAT THEIR DICTATORS HAVE BEEN KICKED OUT! SHOULD THEY HAVE A DEMOCRACY OR A THEOCRACY? MANY ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISTS HAVE GAINED POPULARITY IN THESE COUNTRIES AND WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE WORRIED THAT SECULAR DEMOCRACIES WILL BE DIFFICULT TO MAINTAIN.

REFLECTION U.S. POLICY HAS BEEN INCONSISTENT REGARDING DIFFERENT NATIONS INVOLVED IN THE ARAB SPRING MOVEMENT. WHY MIGHT THIS BE TRUE?