• Location: on the comfy loveseat
• Mood: geeky
• Music: Tracy Chapman-"Revolution"

On the President's Desk: Arab Spring

The Arab Spring was a movement which began in late 2010 in a number of middle eastern and north African nations. It was a protest in response to oppressive regimes and a low standard of living in the region. Protests first began in Tunisia. Social media is credited with having been one of the driving forces behind the swift spread of revolution throughout the region. New protests seemed to appear in response to news of the successes experienced by those movements taking place in other countries. In many of these nations, the governments recognized the importance of social media for organizing by its opposition and some of these governments tried to shut down certain sites or blocked Internet service entirely, especially in the days preceding major rallies. These governments also scrutinized discussion in those forums in order to locate its enemies and those fomenting revolt. In some cases these leaders were falsely accused of unrelated crimes. In other cases the government attempted to shut down communication on specific sites or groups, such as Facebook.



The revolution in Tunisia was one of the first successful ones. In 2010 a series of violent street demonstrations began following the self-immolation of street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid. These protests ultimately led to the ousting of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on January 14, 2011. The demonstrations protested the high unemployment, high levels of inflation especially for food, government corruption, lack of freedom of speech, other forms of political oppression, and poor living conditions. The protests resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries, most of which were the result of action by police and security forces against demonstrators. Ben Ali fled into exile in Saudi Arabia, ending his 23 years in power.

A caretaker coalition government was created following Ben Ali's departure, which included members of Ben Ali's party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD), as well as opposition figures from other ministries. The non-RCD ministers resigned almost immediately and the protests continued. On January 27, Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi reshuffled the government, removing all former RCD members other than himself, and on February 6 the former ruling party was suspended and later (on 9 March) it was dissolved. Following further public protests, Ghannouchi resigned on February 27, and Beji Caid Essebsi became Prime Minister.

On October 23, 2011, Tunisians voted in the first post-revolution election. The voters elected representatives to a 217-member constituent assembly that would be responsible for the new constitution. The leading Islamist party, Ennahda, won 37% of the vote, and elected 42 women to the Constituent Assembly. On January 26, 2014, a new constitution was approved in a referendum. The constitution increases human rights, gender equality, government accountability and makes Tunisia a more transparent and open government. On October 26, 2014, the country held its first parliamentary elections since the 2011 Arab Spring. Its presidential election was held on November 23, 2014

The effects of the Tunisian Revolution spread strongly to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain, where either the regime was toppled or major uprisings and social violence occurred, including riots, civil wars or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Iranian Khuzestan, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests occurred in Djibouti, Mauritania, the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, and the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara.



The wave of initial revolutions and protests faded by mid-2012, as many Arab Spring demonstrations were met with violent responses from the government militias and militaries. Large-scale conflicts resulted—the Syrian Civil War, subsequent unrest and insurgency in other countries. In some countries leadership and regime changes led to power vacuums and to a conflict between religious elites and those supporting democracy. Counter-revolutionary movements by foreign state actors arose in Yemen and of the Saudi-UAE-linked military deep state in Egypt. Military interventions in Bahrain and Yemen followed along with destructive civil wars in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.

In 2011, after three weeks of unrest, President Barack Obama urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to resign. Following Mubarak's resignation, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi later took power from Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in a 2013 coup d'état. In response, President Obama directed US arms shipments to be cut off to Egypt. Obama later resumed the shipments in 2015.

Yemen experienced a revolution and then civil war, leading to a Saudi military campaign that received logistical and intelligence assistance from the United States. President Obama announced his administration's intention to review U.S. military assistance to Saudi Arabia after Saudi warplanes targeted a funeral in Yemen's capital Sanaa, killing more than 140 people.



For the first two years of his presidency, President Donald Trump has proposed a substantial cut in U.S. assistance to Tunisia, suggesting that aid be cut by more than half, from $185.4 million to about $80 million. This was one of the issue of conflict between the President and his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who called Tunisia “an important partner”. The extent to which the United States supports the positive results of the Arab Spring will continue to remain an important issue on the president's desk.