In this Feb. 11, 2011 file photo, Egyptians celebrate the news of the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, who handed control of the country to the military, at night in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, Egypt.
AP Photo
PAST EVENT
Did Democracy Promotion Cause the Arab Spring?
Brown Bag Lunch
Series: International Security Brown Bag Seminar
Open to the Public - Malkin Penthouse, Littauer 4th Floor
May 21, 2012
12:15-2:00 p.m.
| Speaker: | Heidi Lane, Research Fellow, International Security Program |
Related Project: International Security
Description:
THIS EVENT IS POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
The emerging dominant narrative of the Arab Spring, even as its direction continues to unfold in different ways, is one in which popular protest is driven by citizens who can no longer tolerate political and economic stagnation, the absence of basic religious and political freedoms, and top-down corruption within their national institutions. From Tunisia to Egypt to Libya to Yemen, scholars and policymakers have focused on the absence of democracy in the lives of Arab citizens and have tended to treat indicators of state-led repression, limitations on civic and political life, and economic and political dysfunction as the primary causal mechanisms for the uprisings that have upended the relationship between the rulers and the ruled in the past year and a half. This seminar will explore the basis for an alternative explanation. Has the Arab Spring instead been facilitated and perhaps even hastened by democracy promotion over the past two decades?
Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.
Contact:
ISP Program Coordinator
International Security Program,
79 John F. Kennedy St., Mailbox 53,
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
HARVARD Kennedy School
Email: susan_lynch@hks.harvard.edu
Phone: 617-496-1981
Fax: 617-495-8963
Url: http://www.belfercenter.org/ISP/
AP Photo
March 2012
"The Arab Spring's Three Foundations"
per Concordiam, issue 4, volume 2
By Heidi Lane, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2010–2012
"Post 9/11 politics placed security before reform and inadvertently justified extension or readoption of heavy-handed and semiauthoritarian practices even in states that had made some progress in moving away from dependence on security apparatuses."
