Whatever Happened to the Arab Spring?
Wednesday, October 4, 201712:00 PM - 1:30 PM (Pacific)
Philippines Conference Room
Encina Hall, 3rd Floor
616 Serra St
Stanford, CA 94305
Cosponsored by The Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies
Abstract:
Half a decade after Arabs across the Middle East poured into the streets to demand change, hopes for democracy have disappeared in a maelstrom of violence and renewed state repression. Egypt remains an authoritarian state, Syria and Yemen are in the midst of devastating civil wars, Libya has descended into anarchy, and the self-declared Islamic State rules a large swath of territory. Even Turkey, which also experienced large-scale protests, has abandoned its earlier shift toward openness and democracy and now more closely resembles an autocracy. How did things go so wrong so quickly across a wide range of regimes? In False Dawn: Protest, Democracy, and the New Middle East, noted Middle East regional expert Steven A. Cook looks at the trajectory of events across the region from the initial uprising in Tunisia to the failed coup in Turkey to explain why the Middle Eastern uprisings did not succeed.
Speaker Bio:
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