Evaluating the Use of Force During the Arab Spring

Extract

When, on 17 December 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year old, set himself on fire as a desperate act of protest in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, he did not know that he was going to spark a historical movement of political revolutions that would sweep through the nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The ‘Arab Spring’, which in the spring of 2011 touched Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, and most recently Syria, among other countries, has so far led to mixed results in terms of regime change. Whereas in Tunisia and Egypt, autocratic leaders relinquished power relatively quickly and with limited bloodshed, in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria protests were, and still are in the latter three of these countries, harshly repressed over the course of several weeks and months leading to thousands of people being killed or wounded. Of course, each of these revolutions has different political, social, and historical backgrounds. It is almost trite to note that power structures in Egypt or Libya are not the same, nor are, for example, the characteristics of society in Syria or Bahrain. This helps to explain the difference between the types of revolution that have taken place. Nevertheless the common aspiration that has pushed huge numbers of ordinary citizens to risk their lives, namely, to achieve freedom by bringing to an end longstanding despotic governments, unites all these cases. The courage of those who have risked all to secure change and those of many others who are still confronting death and torture for exercising their right to peaceful protest, has attracted widespread admiration.