Arab Spring: the New Middle East in the Making (Essays)

This is a collection of essays written about the Arab revolts, and trying to answer the questions many people are raising: why did such revolts occur? Were they preceded by precursory signs? What role played the domestic political elite in toppling the dictators? What role played the foreign powers? What were the claims of the protesters? Were they manipulated? How about the political process that followed the downfall of Ben Ali, Mubarak, Gaddafi, Ali Abdullah Saleh? What about the neighboring countries? How did the contagion occur? Is the revolt still expanding? Will it reach other countries? How about the monarchies? How about the reactions of Israel, Iran, Turkey, the USA and Europe? What about Syria and Lebanon? Why did the Islamists succeed in the first free elections organized in Tunisia and Egypt? Are the countries of the Arab spring going to be led by anti-liberal, anti-Western elite? Is it the beginning of the greatest change in the modern history of the Arab region? Are there new values of the Arab spring? Are they different from the values of the West? These are some of the questions the author tries to investigate and fathom through a systematic monitoring of the events preceding and following the Tunisian revolt in January 14, 2011.