What is the Arab Spring?

The Arab Spring is a label coined mostly by Western commentators of commentators who were influenced by western trends to describe a series uprisings that following an initial protest movement In Tunisia. In December of 2010, a fruit seller in central Tunisia set himself on fire to protest the abuse and corruption of the regime governing Tunisia. The act of despair moved many Tunisians to protest for more than three weeks, leading to the fall of the regime of Ben Ali. Because of the similarity of the conditions of young men and women in most Arab countries, the protest of Tunisia encouraged others to rise up against there governments. The regime in Egypt, too, fell under similar circumstances in January 2011. Protest movements spread taking place in almost all Arab countries, about 22 nations states in total. However, soon after the fall of the regime, foreign actors tried influence the outcome of these uprisings. Some governments became directly involved supplying some protesters with weapons and political support to overthrow some regimes. Some Gulf states, NATO, and most Western governments supported armed rebels in Libya until the long-ruling leader, Qaddafi, was killed by the armed rebels. Similar actions were taken in Syria and Yemen. However, the Syrian uprising, once it became militarized, quickly expanded to turn into a proxy-war involving regional and global governments, resulting in destructive war the effects of which are yet to be addressed. A decade later, looking back, it is clear that there was no “Arab Spring”. There was an attempt to reshuffle the political map in the region. However, the outcomes could not be fully controlled, and these uprisings, civil wars, and proxy-wars spiraled out of control bringing new global conditions that are yet to be fully understood and adjusted to.