Synopsis of the book “Protest Movements in the Arab World” (Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Bahrain, Algeria, Syria and Jordan)

This book is a collaborative work written by: Tamer Kharma, Fares Ashti, Rabei Wahba, Lutfi Boumghar, Salama Kila, Mohammad Alagati, Abdelrahim Manar Alsolaimi, Nuran Sayed Ahmad, Amri Al Shobki, Heba Raouf Ezzat. And Edited by Amro Al Shobki.

This book is about seven case studies from various Arab countries based on the protests that raged in the Arab world since 2011. The aim of the cases is trying to understand the historical, subjective, political, economic and social conditions that led to the outbreak of the Arab Spring revolution. Then asking whether these movements may form a social movement or movements that can contribute to positive progress and change within the region in the future, or whether these movements will remain unorganized, most of it had made a break between its partial demands and any political or economic demands of a general reform nature.

The book is a second edition after a first one issued during the beginning of the Arab movements in 2011. The first edition included Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon and Bahrain, while the second added: Algeria, Syria, and Jordan.

The study is divided into an introduction, nine chapters and a summary. The first chapter explains the concept of social movements, its origin, characteristics, and development worldwide, while the second one is about the history of social movements within the Arab region. Chapters three to nine are about the case studies, they mainly highlight on the most important movements in them throughout the years leading to conclusions about the main questions of the book.

It is evident from the book that the outbreak of protest movements in the case studies is a result of several factors, notably economic and social crises that accumulated in these countries, partial response to democratic changes in the world, Palestinian Intifada and invasion of Iraq which led to a change in the political stagnation, in addition to changing the approach of civil society from the service approach to human rights empowerment.
According to the book also, the future of the protests in the case studies at the present time is related to the objective conditions linked to regional and international changes and the nature of the emerging regimes in the region, rather than the subjective factors related to these movements’ capacity to develop themselves, with emphasis on the importance of the two dimensions.

The full book available in Arabic first edition: https://bit.ly/2TrjBxN

Second edition available hard copy at the center of Arab unity studies.