François Burgat - Ten lessons on the Arab Spring - 9/11/2018

There is currently still a lack of perspective to make a credible assessment of the dynamic protests which were reactivated since 2011 by the ‘spring’ that shook societies of the Mediterranean South and East. Some trends can be lined out. In certain national arenas, the counter performance of the left and ‘the omni-present diversity’ of the Islamists are clear. From the unlikely rapprochement Saudi-Israeli to the Qatari-Iranian flirtation, to the resilience of the Moscow-Teheran-Damas axis, or the assertion of Turkey – these transformations have impacted the chessboard of regional and international solidarities. Finally, in Europe, revolutions, migration and terrorism have affected its relations with its Southern neighbors on domestic policy issues, to the point of swaying here and there the electoral balances.