1st Edition
Politics of Change in Middle East and North Africa since Arab Spring A Lost Decade?
A decade since the eruption of Arab Spring protests in the Middle East and North Africa, the region continues to confront the primary causes of the popular disenchantment including economic deprivation, bad governance, corruption and limited avenues for political expression. Democratisation, the buzzword in 2011 has given way to debates around conflict management and resolution. Simultaneously, there are mounting economic challenges throughout the region that have been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. But there are some silver linings such as a focus on reforms, greater scrutiny against corruption, demand for better governance, and awareness regarding women empowerment and rights of minorities.
The volume, Politics of Change in the Middle East and North Africa since Arab Spring: A Lost Decade?, commemorates the ten years of the eruption of Arab Spring protests. It captures some of the prevailing political, economic, strategic and social issues in MENA through thematic or country-specific essays that explore the ongoing transformations and underline how despite the hopelessness, the MENA societies have made progress on various fronts.
Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan).
1. Introduction
Md. Muddassir Quamar
2. Saudi Arabia after the Arab Spring
Joseph A. Kéchichian
3. Exploring the Nexus between Democratisation, Authoritarianism and Patriarchy in Iran and Saudi Arabia
Hussein Solomon and Simone Bekker
4. Al-Azhar as a Key Player in Countering the Radical Ideology of Global Jihad
Michael Barak
5. Gulf Think Tanks and Regional Security Policy after 2011
Mona Ali
6. The Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia
Nina Slama
7. (Un)Development Effects of Real Estate Boom in Egypt after the Arab Uprising
Sameena Hameed
8. Arab Spring and Arms Trade in MENA
Lakshmi Priya
9. Lebanon’s 17 October Revolution, WhatsApp and Mass Mobilisation
Joseph Alagha
10. The Arab Spring and Extremism among Sunni Minorities in Iran
Maria Elizabeth Joseph
11. Digitalisation of Conflict and Cooperation in the Middle East
Rohit Sharma
12. The Shadow Line: Turkey and the Arab Spring
Krzysztof Strachota
13. Narratives on Arab World in Turkish Academic Discourse: Publications of State-Centric Institutions
Sinem Cengiz
14. China Foreign Policy in Middle East and North Africa after the Arab Spring
Mordechai Chaziza
15. Bear Hug: Russia’s Return to the Middle East
Uma Purushothaman
16. India and the Arab Spring
P. R. Kumaraswamy
Biography
Md. Muddassir Quamar is Associate Fellow at Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, and holds a Ph.D. in Middle East studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has a wider research interest in politics and societies in the Arabian Gulf, political Islam, Middle East strategic affairs, and India’s relations with the Middle East. Among other books and monographs, Dr. Quamar is the author of Education System in Saudi Arabia: Of Change and Reforms (2021)and co-author of India’s Saudi Policy: Bridge to the Future (2019). More than a dozen of his research papers have appeared in international refereed journals besides he has contributed over 20 chapters for edited volumes. In 2014-15, he was Visiting Fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Riyadh. Dr. Quamar has been associated with the MEI@ND in various honorary capacities since its inception in 2010.
