International Relations
Context: K.P. Fabian’s newly launched book, ‘The Arab Spring That Was and Wasn’t’ was seen in the news recently.
About Arab Spring:
- The Arab Spring was a series of pro-democracy uprisings that enveloped several largely Muslim countries, including Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Bahrain.
- The events in these nations generally began in the spring of 2011, which led to the name.
- However, the political and social impact of these popular uprisings remains significant today, years after many of them ended.
- When protests broke out in Tunisia in late 2010 and spread to other countries, there were hopes that the Arab world was in for massive changes.
- The expectation was that in countries where people rose, such as Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain and Syria, the old autocracies would be replaced with new democracies.
- But Tunisia is the only country where the revolutionaries outwitted the counter-revolutionaries.
- They overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s dictatorship, and the country transitioned to a multi-party democracy.
- But except Tunisia, the country-specific stories of the Arab uprising were tragic.
Source: Indian Express
