The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings: End of an Old Order?

324 Pages·2012·4.75 MB·English

by  Bassam Haddad

The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings
“In the last few years, Jadaliyya has established itself as an indispensable
source dealing with the contemporary Arab world. This collection of its
pieces on the Arab uprisings is perhaps the best introduction to the political
movements that have shaken that region since January 2011. It offers a
set of intelligent commentaries on revolutionary events in almost every
Arab country, and their repercussions in the area and beyond. Dawn of
the Arab Uprisings is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand
the possible future developments of our uncertain world.”
Talal Asad, City University of New York
“As contemporary reflections, these writings capture the unfolding of
revolutionary events as they happened and convey the uncertainties, hopes
and disappointments of collective worlds being remade. As the work of
scholars and activists with a rich knowledge of the region’s histories and
political aspirations, the essays offer lasting insights into the forces shaping
a new moment in world history.”
Timothy Mitchell, Columbia University
“The outburst of the Arab Revolutions demands imaginative and novel
perspectives on the Arab world, and Jadaliyya has managed to provide a
unique forum covering the region with a fresh approach to its issues and
problems. Its talented contributors, from the Arab world and beyond,
combine objectivity with a progressive, humanistic engagement, and never
shy away from sometimes explosive topics such as the world of oil and its
despotic monarchies. Necessary reading on an Arab world in the throes
of change.”
Fawwaz Traboulsi, author of A History of Modern Lebanon
Haddad T02676 00 pre 1 30/08/2012 12:36
“Not since struggles for independence has the Middle East witnessed the
kind of mass mobilization characteristic of recent Arab uprisings. The
online journal Jadaliyya has been at the forefront of intelligent commentary,
capturing the immediacy of current events with uncommon thoughtfulness.
With an appreciation for the various genres expressive of politics, the
journal has placed public intellectuals, activists, journalists, artists, and
academics in conversation, enabling contentious debates and divergent
analyses to reach multiple, global publics. A primer of importance not
only to students of the ‘Arab Spring,’ but also to those concerned with
protest more generally, this collection represents relevant writings from the
early months of the uprisings. Registering both the exhilarating optimism
and crushing disappointment of contemporary political life, this volume
is recommended for anyone interested in the interrelationships among
domestic, regional, and international affairs; it gives voice to some of the
possibilities for and impasses to political transformation.”
Lisa Wedeen, Mary R. Morton Professor of Political Science
and the College, University of Chicago
“During the Arab uprisings, my first port of call every day was Jadaliyya
to understand and interpret the events. The articles collected here are a
very rare combination—scholarly but also accessible for a broad public.
This book will be a much-treasured volume for undergraduate students,
and its sophistication will also benefit postgraduates and academics.
More importantly, an intelligent lay reader will also find the book
immediately useful.”
Dr Laleh Khalili, SOAS, University of London
Haddad T02676 00 pre 2 30/08/2012 12:36
The DAwn of The
ArAb Uprisings
end of an old order?
Edited by Bassam Haddad,
Rosie Bsheer and Ziad Abu-Rish
Foreword by Roger Owen
Haddad T02676 00 pre 3 30/08/2012 12:36
first published 2012 by pluto press
345 Archway road, London n6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Distributed in the United states of America exclusively by
palgrave Macmillan, a division of st. Martin’s press LLC,
175 fifth Avenue, new York, nY 10010
Copyright © bassam haddad, rosie bsheer and Ziad Abu-rish 2012
The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the authors of
this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and patents Act 1988.
british Library Cataloguing in publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the british Library
isbn 978 0 7453 3325 0 hardback
isbn 978 0 7453 3324 3 paperback
isbn 978 1 8496 4797 7 pDf ebook
isbn 978 1 8496 4798 4 Kindle ebook
isbn 978 1 8496 4799 1 epUb ebook
Library of Congress Cataloging in publication Data applied for
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the
country of origin.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for pluto press by Chase publishing services Ltd
Typeset from disk by stanford DTp services, northampton, england
simultaneously printed digitally by Cpi Antony rowe, Chippenham, UK and
edwards bros in the United states of America
Haddad T02676 00 pre 4 30/08/2012 12:36
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Foreword x
Jadaliyya: Archiving the Revolution
Roger Owen
Introduction 1
Bassam Haddad, Rosie Bsheer, and Ziad Abu-Rish
SECTION I: OPENINg ARTICLES
1. Impromptu: A Word 7
Sinan Antoon
2. Preliminary Historical Observations on the Arab
Revolutions of 2011 9
Rashid Khalidi
3. Awakening, Cataclysm, or Just a Series of Events?
Reflections on the Current Wave of Protest in the
Arab World 17
Michael Hudson
4. Paradoxes of Arab Refo-lutions 28
Asef Bayat
5. The Year of the Citizen 33
Mouin Rabbani
6. Three Powerfully Wrong—and Wrongfully
Powerful—American Narratives about the Arab Spring 37
Jillian Schwedler, Joshua Stacher,
and Stacey Philbrick Yadav
SECTION II: TUNISIA
7. The Tunisian Revolution: Initial Reflections 49
Mohammed Bamyeh
8. Tunisia’s glorious Revolution and its Implications 59
Noureddine Jebnoun
Haddad T02676 00 pre 5 30/08/2012 12:36
vi The DAwn of The ArAb Uprisings
9. Let’s Not Forget about Tunisia 66
Nouri Gana
10. The Battle for Tunisia 71
Nouri Gana
SECTION III: EgYPT
11. The Poetry of Revolt 77
Elliott Colla
12. Why Mubarak is Out 83
Paul Amar
13. Egypt’s Revolution 2.0: The Facebook Factor 91
Linda Herrera
14. Egypt’s Three Revolutions: The Force of History
Behind this Popular Uprising 97
Omnia El Shakry
15. The Architects of the Egyptian Uprising and the
Challenges Ahead 104
Saba Mahmood
16. The Revolution Against Neoliberalism 113
Walter Armbrust
17. Egypt’s Orderly Transition: International Aid and
the Rush to Structural Adjustment 124
Adam Hanieh
SECTION IV: LIBYA
18. The Arabs in Africa 139
Callie Maidhof
19. Tribes of Libya as the Third Front: Myths and
Realities of Non-State Actors in the Long Battle
for Misrata 143
Jamila Benkato
20. Solidarity and Intervention in Libya 150
Asli Ü Bâli and Ziad Abu-Rish
SECTION V: BAHRAIN
21. Let’s Talk about Sect 161
Tahiyya Lulu
Haddad T02676 00 pre 6 30/08/2012 12:36
ConTenTs vii
22. Distortions of Dialogue 165
Tahiyya Lulu
23. When Petro-Dictators Unite: The Bahraini
Opposition’s Struggle for Survival 169
Rosie Bsheer and Ziad Abu-Rish
SECTION VI: YEMEN
24. Yemen’s Turn: An Overview 177
Lara Aryani
25. How it Started in Yemen: From Tahrir to Taghyir 182
Nir Rosen
26. Saleh Defiant 200
Ziad Abu-Rish
SECTION VII: SYRIA
27. Why Syria is Not Next...So Far 207
Bassam Haddad
28. Fear of Arrest 210
Hani Sayed
29. Syrian Hope: A Journal 225
Amal Hanano
SECTION VIII: REgIONAL REVERBERATIONS OF
THE ARAB UPRISINgS
30. The Political Status Quo, Economic Development,
and Protests in Jordan 237
Ziad Abu-Rish
31. Dissent and its Discontents: Protesting the Saudi State 248
Rosie Bsheer
32. The Never Ending Story: Protests and Constitutions
in Morocco 260
Emanuela Dalmasso and Francesco Cavatorta
33. Emergencies and Economics: Algeria and the Politics
of Memory 266
Muriam Haleh Davis
34. Iraq and its Tahrir Square 270
Zainab Saleh
Haddad T02676 00 pre 7 30/08/2012 12:36
viii The DAwn of The ArAb Uprisings
35. Tahrir’s Other Sky 274
Noura Erakat and Sherene Seikaly
36. What is [the] Left? 278
Maya Mikdashi
Epilogue: Parting Thoughts 281
Madawi Al-Rasheed
Notes 286
Index 297
Haddad T02676 00 pre 8 30/08/2012 12:36
Acknowledgments
We would first like to extend our appreciation to the authors
whose articles make up the bulk of these pages. Their willingness
to share their research, experiences, and reflections vis-à-vis the
Middle East in general and the Arab uprisings more specifically was
central to Jadaliyya’s role in shaping academic and non-academic
discourses alike. We would also like to thank Jadaliyya’s co-editors,
contributing editors, and our many dedicated interns. They were
all part of the solicitation, submission, review, editing, and posting
processes that initially brought these articles to light.
The transformation of a disparate set of articles published on
Jadaliyya into a coherent edited volume encapsulating the initial
period of the Arab uprisings involved several individuals. Roger
Owen’s Foreword and Madawi Al-Rasheed’s Epilogue are testaments
of their commitment to supporting new projects and advancing
critical interventions related to the production of knowledge on
and solidarity networks in the Arab world. Thomas Sullivan was
an invaluable resource in preparing the format and layout of the
manuscript for submission. We are grateful for his copy-editing
work and that of Adam gallagher. Finally, we offer our appreciation
to David Shulman and his colleagues at Pluto Press, both for their
initial excitement about the project as well as their diligence in
seeing it through to completion.
We dedicate this volume to Mohamed Bouazizi and the countless
others who have given their lives in the struggle for dignity, justice,
and freedom.
ix
Haddad T02676 00 pre 9 30/08/2012 12:36