The Winter Uprisings: An Awakening for All
The cascade of pro-democracy protest across the Middle East presumably should not have caught the West off guard, but it did. The United States spends billions of dollars each year supporting Arab governments and on a vast intelligence service dedicated to better informing officials about on goings in the region. Regardless of the United States’ […]
The Tunisian Spark: Triggering the Fourth Wave of Democratization
Mohamed Bouazizi was a college graduate and yet at twenty-six years old he found himself selling fruit on the side of the street to support his mother, uncle and five siblings in their hometown of Sidi Bouzid. According to a report by the New York Times,[i] a municipal inspector, Faida Hamdy, seized Bouazizi’s goods because […]
The Syrian ‘Day of Rage’: A Revolution That Wasn’t
In a recent exclusive interview with the Wall Street Journal, President Bashar Al-Assad of Syria stated, “When there is divergence between your policy and the people’s beliefs and interests, you will have this vacuum that creates disturbance.” He also said that despite the similarities between Syria, Egypt, and Tunisia, Syrians were different because they had […]