A decade ago, the Arab Spring promised to end dictatorship and bring self-government to people across the Middle East. Yet it mostly led to either renewed dictatorship, civil war, extremist terror, or all three. Also; after five decades of military dictatorship came to an end in Myanmar, the armed forces there retained a significant hold on power. After being trounced in last November’s election, the military leaders became even more unhappy, hence the recent coup.
The Hirak, a massive popular protest movement for democracy in Algeria which began in February 2019 and continues to challenge military authoritarian rule in the country today, is most potent when it can sustain mass mobilization against the regime across cultural, ethnic, linguistic, ideological, class, and racial lines.
1Elsewhere, I discuss the importance of sustained, cross-cutting mobilization in efforts to end military authoritarian rule. See Stephen J. King,
The Arab Winter: Democratic Consolidation, Civil War, and Radical Islamists (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020). This was largely the case throughout 2019 as the Hirak gathered millions of protesters in weekly demonstrations across Algeria, initially spurred by the cynical announcement of the candidacy for president of military-backed, aged, and seriously ill Abdelaziz Bouteflika for a fifth term.
Cultural Diversity Leads to a Shared Future for the World
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BEIJING, Jan. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ An article by China.org.cn on cultural diversity:
In the beginning, civilization was like a candle lit against darkness, its lonely glow only able to illuminate the immediate surroundings.
Cultural Diversity Leads to a Shared Future for the World
All civilizations are of equal value, and all have merits and flaws. There is no such thing as a perfect civilization or a civilization without a single virtue, and no one civilization should be judged superior or inferior to another.
From hope to agony, what s left of the Arab Spring? al-monitor.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from al-monitor.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A decade ago, protests in Tunisia sparked the Arab Spring uprisings. AFP
Ten years ago a wildfire of revolts in the Arab world touched off an unlikely series of events that swelled, then dashed many hopes, and irrevocably changed the region.
From the quickfire collapse of seemingly invincible regimes to the rise and fall of a jihadist caliphate in its heart, the Middle East hurtled through the 21st century’s second decade in a state of relentless upheaval.
The chain of uprisings that shook the region from late 2010 and was soon dubbed the “Arab Spring” led to disparate long-term outcomes, with many countries today looking worse off.