The European Union and the Arab Spring

The European Union and the Arab Spring PDF Author: Joel Peters
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739174444
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
The European Union and the Arab Spring: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights in the Middle East, edited by Joel Peters, analyzes the response of the European Union to recent uprisings in the Middle East. The past year has witnessed a wave of popular uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East which the Western media dubbed “the Arab Spring.” Demanding greater freedoms, political reform, and human rights, the protesters swept away many of the region’s authoritarian autocratic regimes. The events of the Arab Spring have been truly historic. They led to profound changes in the domestic order of Middle Eastern states and societies and impacted the international politics of the region. Additionally, these events necessitate a comprehensive reappraisal by the United States and most notably by the EU in their relations with the states and peoples of the region. This timely collection brings together nine leading authorities on European foreign policy and the Middle East, and investigates three central questions: What role did the European Union play in promoting democracy and human rights in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East? How did the EU respond to the uprisings of the Arab street? What challenges is Europe now facing in its relations with the region? Peters’ The European Union and the Arab Spring is at the forefront of scholarship on this historic socio-political shift in the Middle East and its wider implications for the West.

The European Union and the Arab Spring

The European Union and the Arab Spring PDF Author: Joel Peters
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739174444
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Get Book Here

Book Description
The European Union and the Arab Spring: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights in the Middle East, edited by Joel Peters, analyzes the response of the European Union to recent uprisings in the Middle East. The past year has witnessed a wave of popular uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East which the Western media dubbed “the Arab Spring.” Demanding greater freedoms, political reform, and human rights, the protesters swept away many of the region’s authoritarian autocratic regimes. The events of the Arab Spring have been truly historic. They led to profound changes in the domestic order of Middle Eastern states and societies and impacted the international politics of the region. Additionally, these events necessitate a comprehensive reappraisal by the United States and most notably by the EU in their relations with the states and peoples of the region. This timely collection brings together nine leading authorities on European foreign policy and the Middle East, and investigates three central questions: What role did the European Union play in promoting democracy and human rights in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East? How did the EU respond to the uprisings of the Arab street? What challenges is Europe now facing in its relations with the region? Peters’ The European Union and the Arab Spring is at the forefront of scholarship on this historic socio-political shift in the Middle East and its wider implications for the West.

The European Union and North Africa

The European Union and North Africa PDF Author: Adel Abdel Ghafar
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815736967
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
How Europe can hit the “reset” button after years of failed responses to North African turmoil The ongoing upheaval in North Africa has presented many challenges to Europe, which previously had been comfortable with the status quo of authoritarian leadership in much of the region. Now in its ninth year, the turmoil has forced European leaders to rethink their approaches to the region, based on the now-obvious reality that the brief hopes of early 2011 for the spread of democracy and economic progress will not be fulfilled anytime soon. In this book, experts from Europe, the United States, and the Middle East discuss what has happened since the so-called “Arab Spring” emerged and how those often-bewildering events have affected both North Africa and the European states across the Mediterranean. The book is based on papers presented at a March 2018 conference sponsored by the South Mediterranean Regional Program of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Chapters focus on events in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia—and offer ideas for how the European Union can adopt fresh approaches to the region, moving beyond its frequently uncertain and shifting responses of recent years.

Human Rights and Democracy in EU Foreign Policy

Human Rights and Democracy in EU Foreign Policy PDF Author: Rosa Balfour
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113649572X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
This book investigates the disparity between rhetoric and performance in the European Union response to abuses of human rights and transgression of democracy. With the Arab spring putting the spotlight on the EU’s self-portrait as committed to promoting global human rights and democracy, this book examines the paradoxes of its international posture and the inconsistencies and double standards of its policies. With an informative and empirical approach examining EU relations since the end of the Cold War, this book seeks to uncover the reasons behind the Union’s actions and understand the foreign policy dilemmas and processes that guide its action. Including detailed analysis of Ukraine and Egypt, and the EU response to momentous changes for neighbouring nations, the author draws upon thoroughly-researched investigation into twenty years of EU foreign policy to create a framework using both EU Studies and International Relations. Providing a deeper analysis than other dominant explanations, this book presents new theories on the reasons behind the mismatch between words and deeds. An invaluable and timely volume, Human Rights and Democracy in EU Foreign Policy will be of interest to students and scholars of EU politics, International Relations and human rights policy.

Euro-Mediterranean Relations after the Arab Spring

Euro-Mediterranean Relations after the Arab Spring PDF Author: Jakob Horst
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317139925
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
The ’Arab Spring’ triggered paradigmatic shifts but, despite these changes, much in the Euro-Mediterranean region remains the same. Utilising ’Logics of Action’, an innovative theoretical framework designed to capture the complexity of political interaction in one of the fastest changing regions in the world, this book discusses developments in the region before and after the Arab Spring that can be characterised by a continuation of the norm. Expert contributors identify patterns of interaction between governmental institutions, economic entrepreneurs, religious groups and other diverse actors that withstood these historical changes and explore why these relationships have proved so robust. Connecting a unique sample of case studies on changing and persistent ’Logics of Action’ within the Euro-Mediterranean space this book provides a pivotal contribution to our understanding of political interaction between North Africa, the Middle East and the European Union. Offering a completely new perspective on the events of the ’Arab Spring’ it identifies something that seems paradoxical at first sight; persistence in times of radical change.

Turkey and the European Union

Turkey and the European Union PDF Author: Firat Cengiz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134074557
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
In recent years, Turkey has become an ever more important actor on the international stage. However, Turkey-EU relations still remain in a state of flux. The EU and Turkey seem to have moved apart in their political aspirations after Turkey’s EU accession talks faced a stalemate over the Republic of Cyprus’ EU accession as a divided island. Likewise, both Turkey and the EU have recently faced new socio-political realities, such as the Eurozone crisis, the Arab Spring and the Turkish government’s shifting foreign policy towards the Middle East region. Such developments have rendered EU membership potentially a less desirable prospect for an increasingly self-confident Turkey. In light of these recent events, this book explores the evolving challenges and opportunities facing the more than 50-year old Turkey-EU relationship. This volume focuses particularly on the role of the Cyprus issue, the potential for closer Turkey-EU cooperation in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the impact on Turkish citizens and politics, as well as the concept of Europeanization, especially in relation to Turkey’s democratic reform process. In drawing together perspectives from the disciplines of international relations, political science and law, this book offers a unique, interdisciplinary outlook towards the changing role of Europe in Turkey’s political discourse. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of Turkey-EU relations, EU external relations Law, Europeanization and Turkish and Middle Eastern politics.

Revolution without Revolutionaries

Revolution without Revolutionaries PDF Author: Asef Bayat
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503603075
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
A study of the Arab Spring and its aftermath alongside the revolutions of the 1970s. The revolutionary wave that swept the Middle East in 2011 was marked by spectacular mobilization, spreading within and between countries with extraordinary speed. Several years on, however, it has caused limited shifts in structures of power, leaving much of the old political and social order intact. In this book, noted author Asef Bayat—whose Life as Politics anticipated the Arab Spring—uncovers why this occurred, and what made these uprisings so distinct from those that came before. Revolution without Revolutionaries is both a history of the Arab Spring and a history of revolution writ broadly. Setting the 2011 uprisings side by side with the revolutions of the 1970s, particularly the Iranian Revolution, Bayat reveals a profound global shift in the nature of protest: as acceptance of neoliberal policy has spread, radical revolutionary impulses have diminished. Protestors call for reform rather than fundamental transformation. By tracing the contours and illuminating the meaning of the 2011 uprisings, Bayat gives us the book needed to explain and understand our post–Arab Spring world. Praise for Revolution without Revolutionaries “Bayat is in the vanguard of a subtle and original theorization of social movements and social change in the Middle East. His attention to the lives of the urban poor, his extensive field work in very different countries within the region, and his ability to see over the horizon of current paradigms make his work essential reading.” —Juan Cole, University of Michigan “An astute analyst of the Middle East, Asef Bayat is one of the very few researchers equipped to historicize the region’s contemporary uprisings. In Revolution without Revolutionaries, he deftly and sympathetically employs his own observations of Iran, immediately before and after the 1979 revolution, to reflect on the epochal shifts that have re-worked the political regimes, economic structures, and revolutionary imaginaries across the region today.” —Arang Keshavarzian, New York University “Bayat provocatively questions the Arab Spring’s apparent moderation, tracing its softness to decades of neoliberalism that have undermined the national state and discarded old-fashioned forms of revolutionary violence. This groundbreaking book is not an obituary for the Arab Spring but a hopeful glimpse at its future.” —Olivier Roy, author of The Failure of Political Islam

Transition Towards Revolution and Reform

Transition Towards Revolution and Reform PDF Author: Sonia L. Alianak
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 074869272X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Compares the methods used by the secular leaders of Tunisia and Egypt to deal with revolution with the methods that the monarchs of Morocco and Jordan used to accommodate their peopleOCOs priority of reform. It asks why some Arab Spring uprisings led to"e;

Turkey, the EU and the Middle East

Turkey, the EU and the Middle East PDF Author: Buğra Süsler
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000041085
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
This book focuses on the dynamics of Turkey’s relationship with Europe in the context of the ‘Arab Spring’ and analyses Turkish behaviour vis-à-vis foreign policy cooperation with the EU. Süsler explains the complexity of Turkey-EU relations by looking beyond membership negotiations and examines informal foreign policy dialogue between Turkish and EU officials. The book discusses the reactions of the Turkish government to the uprisings in Libya, Syria, and Egypt and cooperative opportunities between Turkey and the EU. The analysis finds that although cooperation varies across cases, foreign policy dialogue has become a main driver of the Turkey-EU relationship. A counter-intuitive finding of the research is that the EU has often been the actor seeking Turkey’s cooperation, rather than the other way round, clearly challenging the original power asymmetry between Turkey and the EU. Based on interviews with diplomats and policy makers and extensive documentary research, this book will be of interest to political scientists, students, policy makers and researchers focusing on Turkish foreign policy and Turkey-EU relations. This book is also about exploring inventive ways of maintaining a complex working partnership with the EU and will be of interest to scholars working on the EU’s relationship with "outsiders".

Arab Society in Revolt

Arab Society in Revolt PDF Author: Cesare Merlini
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815723970
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
For every pithy conceptualization of complex events, there are additional lenses through which to examine them. One of the several virtues of this book is precisely that it brings different perspectives to bear on the complexity, diversity, and uncertainty of recent and current events in the Arab world. The thirteen authors concentrate on the critical social forces shaping the region—demography, religion, gender, telecommunication connectivity, and economic structures—and they are painstakingly analyzed and evaluated.—from the foreword by Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution The Arab Spring will be remembered as a period of great change for the Arab states of North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. Facing fundamental transitions in governance, these countries are also undergoing profound social, cultural, and religious changes. The European Union and the United States, caught unprepared by the uprisings, now must address the inescapable challenges of those changes. How will the West respond to these new realities, particularly in light of international economic uncertainty, EU ambivalence toward a "cohesive foreign policy," and declining U.S. influence abroad? Arab Society in Revolt explains and interprets the societal transformations occurring in the Arab Muslim world, their ramifications for the West, and possible policy options for dealing with this new world. Arab Society in Revolt examines areas of change particularly relevant in the southern Mediterranean: demography and migration, Islamic revival and democracy, rapidly changing roles of women in Arab society, the Internet in Arab societies, commercial and social entrepreneurship as change factors, and the economics of Arab transitions. The book then looks at those cultural and religious as well as political and economic factors that have influenced the Western response, or lack of it, to the Arab Spring as well as the policy options that remain open.

Qatar and the Arab Spring

Qatar and the Arab Spring PDF Author: Kristian Ulrichsen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190210974
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Qatar and the Arab Spring offers a frank examination of Qatar's startling rise to regional and international prominence, describing how its distinctive policy stance toward the Arab Spring emerged. In only a decade, Qatari policy-makers - led by the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and his prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani - catapulted Qatar from a sleepy backwater to a regional power with truly international reach. In addition to pursuing an aggressive state-branding strategy with its successful bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar forged a reputation for diplomatic mediation that combined intensely personalized engagement with financial backing and favorable media coverage through the Al-Jazeera. These factors converged in early 2011 with the outbreak of the Arab Spring revolts in North Africa, Syria, and Yemen, which Qatari leaders saw as an opportunity to seal their regional and international influence, rather than as a challenge to their authority, and this guided their support of the rebellions against the Gaddafi and Assad regimes in Libya and Syria. From the high watermark of Qatari influence after the toppling of Gaddafi in 2011, that rapidly gave way to policy overreach in Syria in 2012, Coates Ulrichsen analyses Qatari ambition and capabilities as the tiny emirate sought to shape the transitions in the Arab world.