Final Response

Overall, I feel like I've taken away a good bit of knowledge from this class. I've improved my understanding of the MENA region and how social movements can occur. This class has also reaffirmed my plans to one day work in the Middle East as a human rights actor. I had honestly never heard of civil society before this class, so that's one topic of which I definitely amassed a lot of information. I found our discussions interesting, but often felt less informed that some others in the class. I came into the course with very little knowledge of the area, including names of groups and political leaders, so I was often confused in the beginning of the course. I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary we just watched about the steps a country can take to bring down a dictatorship- I felt like it was a culmination of everything we've learned in class. Some of the main things I've learned from this course are about how small groups can amass into an effective grassroots organizations, how Orientalist discourses can skew Middle Eastern-US perceptions, and quite a lot about Saudi Arabia. I thought the country brief projects were useful, particularly when working on the final presentation, and helped apply the concepts we were learning in class. I'm glad I took this class, and I hope to continue learning about the MENA region with my newly crafted lens of which to view it.

Final Reflection

Although I did think the material for this class was a bit confusing at the beginning of the semester, I have found by the end that I do have a better understanding of non-violent social movements in the MENA region. You never really stop and think about the mechanics and planning behind the revolutions in Tunisia, Iran, Serbia, and Egypt. The media does a good job of portraying these types of movements as sudden, yet successful ones, when careful planning is actually used and carried out for months. I found it extremely interesting to see how similar ways in which to stage a non-violent social movement can be found throughout the world, and how much more successful it can be than using violence. Overall, this class was very interesting, and I enjoyed it greatly.

Reflection 10

Earlier this week, Al Jazeera ran a feature on Tunisian President Marzouki, winner of the 2012 Chatham House award as the world’s most influential statesperson and the impetus behind the country’s peaceful transition to what seems to be the roots of a substantive democracy.  Tunisia is probably best known as the “birthplace” of the Arab Spring when the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouzazi on December 17, 2010 sparked an intensive civil resistance campaign which led to the ousting of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.  Unlike similar revolutions in the Arab Spring, Tunisia experienced democratization and free and elections in a participatory republican system.  

The author, Yasmine Ryan, who also interviewed the Tunisian president, lauded Marzouki for remaining committed to protecting human rights and democratic principles amidst a region “accustomed to strongmen.”  The author also praises Marzouki’s refusal to accept the deep secular-Islamist divide that currently undermines the foundations of Egypt's revolution. According to Ryan, “It is a choice that has earned him considerable criticism from other secularists, including within his own movement.”  

While I have all the respect in the world for Mr. Marzouki as a fearless leader committed to human rights advocacy and a true democrat, I think Ms. Ryan is overlooking the role of civil society and Tunisia’s history of political cooperation in its relatively peaceful and swift transition to democracy.  A two-level discourse between civil society and Troika, the coalition  between the centre-right Ennahdha, Marzouki's centre-left Congress for the Republic (CPR) and centre-left Ettakatol, has been active in Tunisia for some time.  Both civil society actors and Troika have a “shared commitment to establishing a free and democratic political system, bringing together what he describes as moderate secularists and moderate Islamists.” According to Alfred Stepan, an expert in democratic transitions "the Troika did not come into existence after the election, it was prepared for a very very long time, over a period of 20 years.”

Tunisia civil society has been gaining traction in recent years and is working to develop frameworks to oversee the transition process and act as a counterweight to political parties and transitional institutions. It is important that their role in a peaceful and effective transition to substantive democracy is not overlooked.

Reflection 9

Earlier this week, France became the first Western state to recognize the legitimacy of Syria’s opposition as the representative of the Syrian people.  “I announce today that France recognizes the Syrian National Council as the sole representative of the Syrian people, and as the future government of a democratic Syria bringing an end to Bashar Assad’s regime,” stated French President Francois Hollande in a press conference.  France’s decision (and now Turkey’s as of a few minutes ago) to recognize the opposition as the sole representative of the Syrian people marks a serious shift in the crisis in Syria.  The SNC, which represents the coalition of forces fighting Assad, could be considered a social movement (at least at its inception) and this represents the stage of social movement theory known as “success.” Recognition by France marks a major success for the opposition because with recognition comes funds and possibly weapons.  Though it had to evolve to react to a violent state crackdown and turn to violence itself, it started out as a peaceful social movement whose aims are still peaceful.  Through all of its stages, it has followed the social movement progression and will hopefully achieve its goal of a Syria sans Assad.

Structured Response

When covering and reflecting on the Arab Revolts of 2011, the news media placed a gigantic emphasis on the role of social media tools in the various movements and revolutions.  It seemed as though the news media were surprised by the widespread use of twitter, Facebook, and other social media tools and their effectiveness. However, I would have been more surprised had protestors and organizers not used social media. We have seen that social movements have utilized relatively new organizing tools effectively (OTPOR used the burgeoning internet to topple Milosevic), so it is no surprise that Arab protestors made use of Facebook and Twitter, both of which had been popular for years.

One unforeseen repercussion of the “Twitter Revolutions” or whatever they’re called these days is that the fact that social media was so effective may have obfuscated the causes and outcomes of the protests themselves. Rather, bystanders to these revolutions came away from 2011 knowing that Twitter was effective, but had no idea which people in which state were protesting what, and what the outcomes were.  Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement used new technologies to aid their protests, but their goals and results were better documented than their methods.

Reflection #9

Today I was down at the State Department with my UC class, and I learned that the Sate Department's duty was to be the face of the United States to other countries. This made me think, how do other countries like my research country, Morocco, show themselves to the world? I decided to look at Morocco and figured this would be where their civil society groups would come into play. What I found was that they are mostly focused on the local aspects of their country and trying to increase the standards of their society (e.g. women's rights, youth policies, etc.).

 I'm under the assumption that all states provide some form of foreign aid around the world, and I wonder why places like Morocco keep so quiet about it. This is possibly due to the fact that I am trying to research this through American search sites where almost everything is about U.S.- Moroccan relations and nothing about Moroccan relations with anywhere else in the world. If anything, I believe that could be a problem as to why Americans so rarely know what other countries are doing because we don't report about it or have it come up on our internet unless it somehow relates to us. Is this the United States just being vain or is there a method to our madness?  

Response #9

Today my UC class went to the State Department and the spokesperson there actually briefly touched on how media affected the Arab Spring and other people's revolts in the MENA region. He mentioned how people discuss the use of mainstream media through sites like Facebook and Twitter to mobilize the masses as if it were something entirely brand new, but he claimed it isn't. He believed that it could have happened regardless, and that it would have been more interesting and exciting if the uprisings had occurred without the media. While I respected the spokesperson's opinion, I don't see how the revolts could have happened any other way.

In this day and age, everyone uses the internet. Most people wouldn't know how to function without it, so it only makes sense that the revolutions gained the power it did through the most actively visited place in the world. Not only that, but the internet is the one place government does not have total control over what is published, there's just too much being posted online for the state to track and shut down compared to other outlets like the newspaper. Almost every aspect of life can be found online now, social movement groups are just taking advantage of it and increasing their size through the media. It's globalization at its finest.