This volume analyzes the political, economic and strategic dimensions of the recent upheavals in the Middle East known as the Arab Spring. Mass demonstrations in many Arab states challenged the political status quo and the existing political and cultural system in the region. While it is too early to offer a definitive analysis of the impact of the widespread discontent in the Arab world, the trajectory of the events indicates regime change in several states, containment of political unrest in most states, increase in Islamic tendencies, centrifugal tendencies in a number of political units and deterioration of economic conditions. This volume presents an initial assessment by a selected group of Israeli scholars of the implications of the Arab Spring. The chapters focus on important issues such as democratization, the role of economic factors in political change and explanations for variations in regime stability in the Middle East. Taking an international relations perspective, the book not only examines the evolving regional balance, but also explores the link between external and internal politics and the implications of terrorism for regional security. The chapters also address the implications of the Arab Spring for Israel and its chances of existing peacefully in the region. This volume will be of much interest to students of Middle East politics, international security, foreign policy and international relations.

This volume presents essential aspects of Mediterranean politics to be reconsidered in the light of the Arab upheavals since 2010. The focal point of the book is the question in how far European-Mediterranean relations are challenged by the various developments. It explores the relationship between security and democracy within the Arab countries and in European-Mediterranean relations. The ambiguity between the promotion of democratic values and the preservation of common interests in cooperation in economic and security affairs is stirred up by changing political actors and new conflictual constellations inside the Arab countries. All these changes evoke new challenges for all areas of the European-Mediterranean cooperation. Thus, the volume assembles contributions from different angles on the re-formulation of the European Neighbourhood Policy as well as the Democracy Assistance towards the Southern Mediterranean. It discusses the major security issues of a cooperative security architecture, counter-terrorism action, migration control and security sector reform in order to explore the relevant challenges in the field. The contributions analyse the recent developments and challenges, provide critical insights into those fields and endeavour to provide some proposals for improving Mediterranean cooperation on democracy and security. This book was published as a special issue of Democracy and Security.

This book examines the connection between socio-politics and security in the Arab World. In an effort to understand the social and political developments that have been on-going in the Arab World since the 1990s, culminating in the Arab Spring, Krieg moves beyond liberal deterministic assumptions - most notably that the promotion of liberal values and democracy are the panacea for the structural problems of the region. Instead, this text advances the case that grievances related to individual security needs are at the heart of regional insecurity and instability. Looking towards the future, the author asserts that regimes can only be resilient if they are able to provide for individual security inclusively. When regimes fail to cater for public security, they might be replaced by alternative non-state security providers.

The first book-length assessment of events whose ramifications are still unfolding, Roots of the Arab Spring is a coherent and incisive account of the factors that gave rise to the Arab Spring.

In this study, which highlights a renewed emphasis in international affairs on regional studies, the co-authors provide an assessment of the revolutionary changes in the politics and security of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

A contributed volume by noted experts on the impact and aftereffects of the Arab Spring revolutions.

Why do some militaries support and others thwart transitions to democracy? After the Arab Spring revolutions, why did Egypt's military stage a coup to end the transition? Conversely, why did Tunisia's military initially support the transition, only to later facilitate the elected president's dismantling of democracy? In Soldiers of Democracy? Military Legacies and the Arab Spring, Sharan Grewal argues that a military's behavior under democracy is shaped by how it had been treated under autocracy. Autocrats who had empowered their militaries produce soldiers who will repress protests and stage coups to preserve their privileges. Meanwhile, autocrats who had marginalized their militaries produce soldiers who support democratization, but who are also more susceptible to incumbent takeovers and civil wars. The dictator's choice to either empower or marginalize the military thus creates legacies that shape both the likelihood of democratization and the forms by which it breaks down. Drawing on over 140 interviews with civilian and military leaders, and three surveys of military personnel, this scholarly volume illustrates this theory through detailed case studies of Egypt and Tunisia. Grewal also probes the generalizability of the theory through a cross-national analysis of all countries between 1946-2010. Overall, he brings the military front and center to the study of democratic transition and consolidation.