The Battle for the Arab Spring : Revolution, counter-revolution and the making of a new era

Sparked by the protest of a single vegetable seller in Tunisia, the flame of revolutionary passion swept across the Arab world in what has come to be called the Arab Spring of 2011. Millions took to the streets in revolt: the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya fell, other regimes remain embattled, and no corner of the region has escaped unchanged. In this informed and accessible book, Lin Noueihed and Alex Warren explain the economic and political roots of the Arab Spring, assess what has been accomplished so far, and consider the many stumbling blocks that confront the Arab nations as they try to shape their futures.

Through research, interviews and a wealth of first-hand experience, the authors explain the unique set of obstacles that endanger stability in each country. They analyse the challenges many Arab nations face in building democratic institutions, finding consensus on political Islam, overcoming tribal divides and satisfying an urgent demand for jobs. In an era of change and uncertainty, this insightful guide provides the first clear glimpse of the post-revolutionary future the Arab Spring set in motion.

Book Author

  Alex Warren is a director of Frontier, a Middle East and North Africa consultancy firm. After studying languages at Cambridge, he worked for a specialist publisher focussing on historical relations between Europe and the Arab world before in 2005 moving to Tunisia, where he researched and edited an annual political and economic review of the country. Working as a business journalist and editor in Lebanon during the tumultuous 2005-6 period, and then based in Dubai at the height of the emirate’s boom in 2007-8, Alex reported on and researched topics as diverse as Yeme...
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Lin Noueihed is a Reuters editor based in London. She has reported on the Middle East for 12 years, initially for Lebanon’s Daily Star and Middle East International, and later as a Reuters correspondent. Lin was on the first plane into Tunis after Zine al-Abdine Ben Ali fled the country in January 2011 and was one of the first foreign journalists to go to Sidi Bouzid, the town where it all began. Saudi troops rolled into Bahrain days Lin arrived in March and she witnessed first-hand the crackdown on protesters camped out at Pearl Roundabout and the subsequent demolition of the Pearl m...
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