The Uncertain Future of Democracy Promotion

Democracy promotion has had a tough decade, nowhere more so than in the Middle East. In Working Paper 12 Steven Heydemann reviews the policy paper Beyond Orthodox Approaches: Assessing Opportunities for Democracy Support in the Middle East and North Africa. Ten years ago, the democratic optimism that followed the end of the Cold War was in relatively good health. Today, after a decade of authoritarian reversals, a sustained “backlash against democracy promotion,” and authoritarian resurgence...

Observations on Dar’a: Local Roots of the Uprising

19/05/2011 Ruben Elsinga argues that we can learn from local perspectives in Dar'a when looking at the Syrian uprising. Dar’a indicates that the true nature of the uprisings sweeping through the Middle East is one in which local politics mix conspicuously with a wider call for greater freedom. Through an understanding of these local specificities one can get clues on how the uprising is going to pan out in Dar’a, Syria and the Middle East at large.

Publication: Policy Paper 2 Resilient Authoritarianism in the Middle East

While celebrating a historic turning point in Egypt and Tunesia, it is also clear that authoritarianism will remain a prominent feature of Middle East politics. The spectrum of regime types in the region will expand. It may even come to include democracies. Yet as the cases of Syria and Iran demonstrate, not all regimes will experience political openings. Eventhough the region might be transformed in the years ahead, the cases of Syria and Iran remind us that the political landscape of the Mi...

Publication: Policy Paper 1 Rethinking Civic Activism in the Middle East

Despite the sustained and genuine efforts of committed civic activists, and a ‘surge’ of civil society organisations and democracy promotion over the course of the past two decades in the Middle East, hopes for genuine and far-reaching democratic reforms have reached an apparent dead-end. This is in apparent contrast to civil societies in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, which also faced authoritarian regimes and yet managed to engender democratic changes. Consequently, this Mi...

Social Media in the Arab World

On February 3rd 2011 Jeffrey Ghannam published the report: ‘Social Media in the Arab World; Leading up to the Uprising of 2011’. Ghannam decided to accelerate the production of the report on social media and free expression as it can provide a useful backdrop to the recent popular uprising in Tunisia and Egypt. It aims to give an insight into the rise of an independent and vibrant social media, its impact on the politics of the Arab world and the challenges and limitation imposed by the autho...

ARABIC version State-Business Relations in Morocco

Working Paper 6, now available in Arabic, studies how the relationship between the state and the business community in Morocco has changed over the past two decades. Recent scholarship by social scientists on political change in the Middle East and North Africa has mostly focused on civil society. Relatively less attention has been paid to the role of business associations. Given the more prominent role for the private sector in a market economy it is of interest to examine how the relationsh...

ARABIC version State-Business Relations in Morocco

Working Paper 6, now available in Arabic, studies how the relationship between the state and the business community in Morocco has changed over the past two decades. Recent scholarship by social scientists on political change in the Middle East and North Africa has mostly focused on civil society. Relatively less attention has been paid to the role of business associations. Given the more prominent role for the private sector in a market economy it is of interest to examine how the relationsh...

The Uncertain Future of Democracy Promotion

Democracy promotion has had a tough decade, nowhere more so than in the Middle East. In Working Paper 12 Steven Heydemann reviews the policy paper Beyond Orthodox Approaches: Assessing Opportunities for Democracy Support in the Middle East and North Africa. Ten years ago, the democratic optimism that followed the end of the Cold War was in relatively good health. Today, after a decade of authoritarian reversals, a sustained “backlash against democracy promotion,” and authoritarian resurgence...

12: The Uncertain Future of Democracy Promotion

Democracy promotion has had a tough decade, nowhere more so than in the Middle East. In Working Paper 12 Steven Heydemann reviews the policy paper Beyond Orthodox Approaches: Assessing Opportunities for Democracy Support in the Middle East and North Africa. Ten years ago, the democratic optimism that followed the end of the Cold War was in relatively good health. Today, after a decade of authoritarian reversals, a sustained “backlash against democracy promotion,” and authoritarian resurgence...

The Internet Freedom Fallacy and the Arab Digital activism

Sami ben Gharbia is a Tunisian blogger based in The Netherlands. the co-founder of nawaat.org (which means the core in Arabic), a Tunisian collective blog about news and politics and the Advocacy Director at Global Voices.His blog discusses the risks of Western funding, hyper-politicization and support of digital activism in the Arab World. He states that the direct risks on the digital activism field in the Arab World, in its current early stage of development, are huge and need therefore to...

The Internet Freedom Fallacy and the Arab Digital activism

Sami ben Gharbia is a Tunisian blogger based in The Netherlands. the co-founder of nawaat.org (which means the core in Arabic), a Tunisian collective blog about news and politics and the Advocacy Director at Global Voices.His blog discusses the risks of Western funding, hyper-politicization and support of digital activism in the Arab World. He states that the direct risks on the digital activism field in the Arab World, in its current early stage of development, are huge and need therefore to...

Interview with Salam Kawakibi

Bio: Salam Kawakibi is a researcher in political and social science. He is a senior researcher at Arab Reform Initiative and the University of Amsterdam. His main interests are media, civil societies, international relations and human rights in Arab countries. He also has written many articles on European and Arabic media and books. He is an appointed trainer in human rights and international human law. Furthermore, he is Associate Researcher for IREMAM Aix-en-Provence and GREMMO Lyon, collab...

Report Human Rights Situation in Syria during the Past Decade

The recent release of a country report on Syria by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies covers Syria’s human rights situation during the past decade under the rule of Bashar al-Assad.The report examines the arsenal of autocratic laws inherited by Bashar al-Assad and strengthened by new repressive decrees and laws. In the ten years of al-Assad’s rule, he has deployed them to silence every dissident voice and restrict individuals’ basic rights and liberties. These laws are always at the...

Report Human Rights Situation in Syria during the Past Decade

The recent release of a country report on Syria by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies covers Syria’s human rights situation during the past decade under the rule of Bashar al-Assad.The report examines the arsenal of autocratic laws inherited by Bashar al-Assad and strengthened by new repressive decrees and laws. In the ten years of al-Assad’s rule, he has deployed them to silence every dissident voice and restrict individuals’ basic rights and liberties. These laws are always at the...

Knowledge & Change Spotlight: New Media in West Asia

The ‘spotlight session’ provides a daily preview of key events of our upcoming Knowledge Dialogue. Today we highlight a workshop hosted by the Hivos/University of Amsterdam Knowledge Programme Civil Society in West Asia. With the events surrounding the ‘Twitter revolution’ in Iran last year, attention has shifted towards the meaning of new media in activist networks in authoritarian settings. The Web has become a new space for analysis and researchers are starting to map issue networks of dig...

Knowledge and Change Spotlight: New Media in West Asia

The ‘spotlight session’ provides a daily preview of key events of our upcoming Knowledge Dialogue. Today we highlight a workshop hosted by the Hivos/University of Amsterdam Knowledge Programme Civil Society in West Asia. With the events surrounding the ‘Twitter revolution’ in Iran last year, attention has shifted towards the meaning of new media in activist networks in authoritarian settings. The Web has become a new space for analysis and researchers are starting to map issue networks of dig...

Knowledge & Change Spotlight: Authoritarian regimes

The ‘spotlight session’ provides a daily preview of key events of our upcoming Knowledge Dialogue. Today we would like to highlight the parallel session on the upgrading and resilience of authoritarian regimes & international context and Steven Heydemann who extensively wrote on the phenomenon of upgrading authoritarianism.

Knowledge & Change Spotlight: Authoritarian regimes

The ‘spotlight session’ provides a daily preview of key events of our upcoming Knowledge Dialogue. Today we would like to highlight the parallel session on the upgrading and resilience of authoritarian regimes & international context and Steven Heydemann who extensively wrote on the phenomenon of upgrading authoritarianism.

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