The advent of the Arab Spring in late 2010 was a hopeful moment for partisans of progressive change throughout the Arab world. Authoritarian leaders who had long stood in the way of meaningful political reform in the countries of the region were either ousted or faced the possibility of political if not physical demise. The downfall of long-standing dictators as they faced off with strong-willed protesters was a clear sign that democratic change was within reach. Throughout the last ten years, however, the Arab world has witnessed authoritarian regimes regaining resilience, pro-democracy movements losing momentum, and struggles between the first and the latter involving regional and international powers. This volume explains how relevant political players in Arab countries among regimes, opposition movements, and external actors have adapted ten years after the onset of the Arab Spring. It includes contributions on Egypt, Morocco, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, and Tunisia. It also features studies on the respective roles of the United States, China, Iran, and Turkey vis-à-vis questions of political change and stability in the Arab region, and includes a study analyzing the role of Saudi Arabia and its allies in subverting revolutionary movements in other countries.

Previously published by Pambazuka Press in 2012 under the title of 'The People's Spring: the Future of the Arab Revolution.' This edition contains a new chapter analyzing U.S. geo-strategy.

Taking a comparative approach, this book considers the ways in which political regimes have changed since the Arab Spring. It addresses a series of questions about political change in the context of the revolutions, upheavals and protests that have taken place in North Africa and the Arab Middle East since December 2010, and looks at the various processes have been underway in the region: democratisation (Tunisia), failed democratic transitions (Egypt, Libya and Yemen), political liberalisation (Morocco) and increased authoritarianism (Bahrain, Kuwait, Syria). In other countries, in contrast to these changes, the authoritarian regimes remain intact (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Arab United Emirates.

The Iranian revolution has been the paramount catalyst challenging the political order of the Middle East in recent times. Karen Feste's paper explores whether the emergence of political Islam is key to understanding power struggle in the Middle East. Focusing on the link between civil unrest and government response throughout the Arab world, do events leading up to and following the revolution in Iran render a model that explains political change in the Middle East? Examining the factors that converged to create the 1979 revolution in Iran, what does the interaction between domestic and international pressures underpinning social and political change in the region suggest? Employing aggregate measures based on cross-national, longitudinal event data, Feste tests the correlation between public dissent and government sanctions across three distinct phases in Middle East political history in order to discern patterns of political change associated with temporal, geographical and leadership traits.

Based on a decade of research, including in-depth interviews with many leading figures in the story, this edition is essential for anyone who wants to understand the roots of the turmoil engulfing the Middle East, from civil wars to the rise of Al-Qaeda and ISIS.