Although the Arab Spring uprisings witnessed the toppling of numerous regimes in the Arab world, the region’s future remains uncertain in a fragile political landscape, a panel of scholars said.
The Curriculum in Global Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hosted a panel discussion Friday that focused on the Arab Spring and the future of the Middle East and North Africa. Some of the leading experts on the politics of the Arab world participated in the conference, which took place in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium of the Fedex Global Education Center.
Despite their in-depth research of the region, all of the panelists said they were surprised that the Arab Spring occurred. In a region where authoritarian regimes tend to stay in power despite considerable voices of dissent, such widespread uprisings came as a shock to the experts.
“We expected that the conditions that had contributed to the perpetuation of authoritarian regimes in the past would continue in the future,” said Carrie Wickham, associate professor of political science at Emory University.
Wickham noted that a pervasive culture of fear made people who were unhappy with the status quo unwilling to partake in revolutionary movements.
“The issue was that they were not able to wake the sleeping giant,” she said. “The issue with the events that took place this year was not the demands or grievances but the involvement of the masses.”
The majority of the event consisted of the panelists answering questions from the audience.
Looking toward the future of the Middle East and North Africa, panelists noted the volatile state of the region at this time, emphasizing that although drastic change has taken place with the downfall of various former leaders—as seen in Egypt and Libya—only time will tell if the future of region can remain stable.
“It is important that we do not look at these situations as isolated where one country wins and another loses,” said Jillian Schwedler, associate professor of government and politics at the University of Massachusetts and chair of the Board of Directors of the Middle East Research and Information Project. “Things are changing—there’s no going back now. What goes forward may not be an ideal democracy, but they will definitely not revert back to what they once were.”
Though the majority of the event addressed the results of the Arab Spring from a governmental perspective, the discussion also shed light on the experiences of the youth who originally spearheaded the movement.
“There’s a sense of dignity among the people, that they are owners and citizens of their countries,” said Alfred Stepan, the Wallace S. Sayre professor of government at Columbia University and founding director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion. “This sense of ownership and participation can never be lost.”
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