The Arab Uprisings: Book Review

The Arab uprising by James Gelvin, is the most current book on the Middle East and its recent revolutions encountered, starting in 2010. This book provides insight in the various events that played a role in the uprisings. Providing you with historical history on the cultures and their political monarchy developments, Gelvin provides great insight into the understanding and development of these; what can be looked at as, unique uprisings. The term unique is used in reference to some of the influences; such as social media, and their unique effect on the uprising in reference to time.

There are many monarchies in the Arab world. Past scholars have stated there are three factors that contribute to the many monarchies. The first, tradition, second, religion, and third, tribalism. Gelvin, disagrees with this because none of the factors holds up under scrutiny. Looking at Morocco in relation to the king, Gelvin explains his reasoning more (121). The reason so many monarchies survived and endured in the Arab world is due their evolution in the shadows of European and American dominance when the acquisition of taking territory by force violated international norms(125). Oil has also been a key in the stability of the monarchies. Many rely on oil as their revenue and it accounts for up to 90% of it in areas like Suadi Arabia, Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi. Although, many believe oil helps with stability, some say it actually contributes to the disaffection with governments(127). The distributing of wealth from oil is not fair and has caused demonstrations in areas such Kuwait. Gelvin explains, all these various factors are reasons for the stability of many monarchies in the Arab world.

The author explains the spark of the beginning of the Arab uprisings resulted from the successful suicide attempt by Muhammad Bouazizi, who burned himself in front of the local government building after being humiliated by a policewoman on December 17,2010 in a rural town of Tunisia. The next day fellow venders and others, lined up in front of the local municipal building protesting their anger. Many video taped the demonstration and posted it to Facebook. The government tried to gain control by cutting the Internet connection; technology used in Iran, but failed as citizens directly uploaded images to the satellite TV channel. The author explains “the Tunisian uprising was the first in a series of events that swept through the Arab world.” Over five uprisings occurred in Arab states. Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen,Libya, and Syria where among those states and are discussed in detail. One point in particular the author focuses on is how no one predicted the uprisings, yet no one could have done so due to unforeseen events and social factors not accounted for. Although, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are said to be the cause of these uprisings, the author makes it clear they are not. Yet instead, they where forms of instant open communication which allowed people to come together in ways that have not been available before in revolutions. Thus having an effect on the timeline of events taken place.

Gelvin, explains the major factors that caused the uprisings. He explains that the human element is the key variable in the uprisings taken place in the Arab world; not demographic challenges, food crisis, or any other. He explains this by criticizing social scientist theories for revolutions and their causes. Gelvin says, they claim “uprisings take place when a sudden reversal disrupts a period of improving economic conditions, thereby frustrating popular expectations.”(25) His argument to this is, “these theories do not explain the countless times in which conditions for an uprising are met but no uprising occurs.”(25) Gelvin, explains unforeseen factors such as; the departure of the Egypt and Tunisia presidents, troops firing on peaceful protesters in Bahrain, and the arrest and torture of school children in Syria, gave fire to a spark no had anticipated (26).

Gelvin, explains that the Tunisia and Egypt uprising shared common characteristics. These characteristics consisted of Tunisia and Egypt both being homogenous in its society. Both states also faced a divide between the rich and poor from neoliberal policies. This created tension that was seen during the uprisings. They also share a history of a state building that has left a legacy of autocratic rule in both states, fostering identities that hold a sense of solidarity. The regimes created from the Tunisia and Egypt uprisings had a great deal of influence on these social factors. The Tunisian uprising left a powerful lasting mark on others, finding similar forms of revolt such as suicide-by-fire, and the use of social media. Gelvin also points out how the Egyptian uprising closely resembled the Tunisian in its rapid spread from leaderlessness, and its nonreligious and largely nonviolent orientation.

Gelvin notes the importance of earlier protest movement in Egypt on the 2011 uprising. “They made political, not just economic demands; they gave organizers tactical experience, and they generated organizations that participated in the uprising.” Three clusters of protest are important to remember. The first consist of two events that happened outside of Egypt. The first in 2000, when citizens took the street in support of the second Palestinian uprising (intifada) against the Israeli occupation in the West Bank. The second in 2003 when the US invaded and occupied Iraq (48). The second cluster was in 2004, where the group Kefaya was founded. Although, Kefaya faded years before the uprisings, demands of his where still in demand and a youth from the Kefaya's youth movement was a founder of the April 6 Movement; which had a key role in the organization of the January 2011 protest (48). The third cluster in 2005, came from the result of judges refusal to certify the results of the 2005 parliamentary elections(49).

The debate of the importance of social media on the Arab uprisings is of great debate. As expressed earlier, the author believes it was an important factor but not the cause, as some state. The opportunity created from these social media sites; Facebook and Twitter, consisted of the ability to allow individuals; from all across the world, to come together and communicate instantly. It was noted between 2008 and 2010, Facebook membership increased in the broader Middle East 360% to 3.5 million(51). Gelvin explains social media performed two functions in the uprisings: they facilitate communication among the participants and would-be participants who elected to take part in their protest, and they broadened the range of tactical options to those participants(52).

Both Tunisians and Egyptians experienced and will continue to experience change from the uprisings. Some of the changes noted today, that occurred from the Tunisia uprising; was the sentencing of the former president and his wife to terms of thirty-five years for theft and the economy's continuous suffering; which resulted in many fleeing to the Italian island of Lampedusa. Egypt's changes faced from the uprising where the military's stability to reform. The military resulted in violence to attempt to scare other protesters from participating in any activity that was considered “disturbing the peace.(64)” It can be noted that both the Egyptian and Tunisian uprising brought down an autocrat, but it is to early to determine if it will bring down an autocracy. These two uprisings succeed in dislodging autocrats because the army acted as a unit, declared its commitment to nonviolence, and in some cases even kept protestors and the thugs hired to attack them separated(84).

Yemen and Libya's uprisings can be looked at to occur differently. Unlike Tunisia and Egypt, Yemen and Libya are considered weak states due to them lacking a functioning government and bureaucracy that rules over the entirety of the territory, and a national identity (73). This explains why Yemen and Libya's uprisings did not take place as so Tunisia and Egypt's. Gelvin explains the factors, that contributed to Yemen and Libya state weakness, and their importance in understanding the uprisings that occurred there. The four factors that contributed to their weak states where: geography, history, choices made by leaders, and oil. Gelvin express, due to Yemen and Libya not having unified military with a functioning chain of command and its institutions being weak, these uprisings will lead to true revolutionary change.

Two protest movement occurred at the time of the uprisings. “One fostered the uprising, the other had a checkered history of it. (78)” The first leaving a history was at the end of January 2011, when the JMP began protesting in Yemen's capital, Sana. The revolution lasted shortly, resulting on February 11^th, students, youth activist, and others gathering outside Sana University. They marched to the city's main square where they were forced out by officials. After being forced, the University protesters set up camp in the square outside, later called Tahrir Square becoming the epicenter of rebellion in Sana. By the end of March, through series of violent attacks from both military and protestors, Sana was a city divided between military units and armed supporters of the regime and military units and armed supporters opposed to it.

Libya's uprising occurred with the help of social media. The National Conference for the Libyan Opposition, called for the participation in their own “Day of Rage,” like Egypt and Tunisia, to protest both political and economic conditions. The date chosen was February 17,2011 a anniversary of a previous demonstration held to protest an Italian minister. Unfortunately, events took place on February 15^th that kept that day from happening. Fathi Terbil, a lawyer representing families of the “disappeared” prisoners of Abu Salim prison. Several hundred family members and supporters gathered at the headquarters of a local Revolutionary Committee in Benghazi to protest their disapproval and overthrow of the regime. As other regimes, violence was used against protesters. Rather than quashing the violence, the military and a variety of other armed groups divided into loyalist and opposition camps (84).This is because the weakness of the two states and the fragmentation of the army, the institution that imposed order in Tunisia and Egypt, defined the tactics protesters had at their disposal.

Due to Libya's interest from Europe and the United States, powers where used to intervene in these uprisings. The United States interest was due to Yemen's vital partnership in the battle against terrorism since 2000. Europe’s interest was due to oil and immigration. Due to these interest Libya faces instability.

Gelvin discusses how authors believed Algeria would be next for a uprising and Syria would not be effected. Algeria was believed to be effected due to its vulnerability in the historical role of trendsetters for the Arab world. Although an uprising was attempted, observers suggest the failure was due to the inseparability of the military from the regime; the reluctance on the part of Algerians to revisit the horrors of the civil war; Algeria's two decade long hemorrhaging of young professionals; divisions within the protest movement, lack of support from labor, and roles of slum dwellers(99).

As mentioned early, Syria was not expected to be effected by its partners uprisings, let alone experience one. Gelvin explains, that the beginning of the uprising in Syria resembled that of Libya(103). Both, Syria and Libya uprisings broke out in province areas, and were spontaneous unlike Egypt the uprisings began in the capital city with preparation. The effect of the military on the beginning of the Syria uprising was more devastating than any other experienced, which is why no one could have predicated this uprising. After a demonstration march on March 15^th, three days later, ten schoolchildren aged fifteen or younger from the provincial city of Daraa. The boys where arrested for writing “Down with the regime (nizam)” on a wall. While imprisoned these boys experienced brutal treatment; torture. This author does not make it clear if these boy survived the torture or not. Protestors were found taking the street of Damascus for over two weeks, demanding their releases. After two weeks the government had enough and open fired on protesters, killing several. The next day, after the death of several protesters over twenty thousand demonstrators rallied at their funeral procession and chanted anti-government slogans and attacked government buildings. The same day, protest broke out in the north of Syria. In Banias, protesters were considered about the regime crack down on female school teachers who whore the niqab; Syrian veil, and national issues like the brutality and corruption of the regime. Soon the protests spread through-out other cities like Latakia, Homs, Hasaka, and Qamishli, reaching areas outside Damascus as well. Gelvin explains two features that marked the uprising in Syria. The first, has been the extraordinary bravery of those Syrians who chose to join it in the face of a government that has shown them no mercy. The second, has been the resilience of a regime that always seemed one or two steps behind the protestors(109). The regime believes it can manipulate sectarianism along with kinship, to lock minorities and the regime in a mutually supportive embrace(110). Gelvin also notes, due to the effective coup-proofing in Syria, analysts were blindsided by the outbreak of the uprising (111). Due to Syria's interest from outside states and countries, there have been attempts to bring peace between the opposition faced in Syria between the regime and citizens. Gelvin notes, no internal actor really wants to face the risk of an unstable or fragmented Syria such as might follow the collapse of the regime by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood (115). Regional states also have a stake in a stable, if autocratic, Syria. From this uprising Syria faces a stability issue, but as expressed by the author, isn’t necessarily bad.

Looking back at previous revolutions the author notes the time needed in telling the full outcomes from these uprisings in the Arab world. It has taken decades for others who have faced revolutions, to recover and settle. Although, for some not even a year has passed and others several years have went by, there are traces of problems these states face. Once again it is to early to tell, but one thing that is clear, is change. Something that has been needed desperately in this area.