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Yasmine Farouk, Nathan J. Brown, Maysaa Shuja Al-Deen, …
{
"authors": [
"Michele Dunne"
],
"type": "testimony",
"centerAffiliationAll": "dc",
"centers": [
"Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
"Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center"
],
"collections": [
"Arab Awakening"
],
"englishNewsletterAll": "menaTransitions",
"nonEnglishNewsletterAll": "",
"primaryCenter": "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
"programAffiliation": "MEP",
"programs": [
"Middle East"
],
"projects": [],
"regions": [
"North Africa",
"Egypt",
"Gulf",
"Levant",
"Maghreb"
],
"topics": [
"Political Reform"
]
}Source: Getty
Egypt's Revolution and the Arab World
Demand for change in the Middle East and North Africa has been building for years, as youth unemployment plagued countries across the region and citizens felt their governments were not being held accountable for growing socio-economic problems.
Source: Women's Foreign Policy Group

Due to these phenomena, the demand for change in the region has been building for some time, Dunne said. Experts in the field did not predict the Tunisian uprising, but once it happened, it demonstrated to the people of the region that their regimes were more vulnerable than they thought and broke a barrier of fear. Since then, Dunne said, protests have swept across the region.
About the Author
Former Nonresident Scholar, Middle East Program
Michele Dunne was a nonresident scholar in Carnegie’s Middle East Program, where her research focuses on political and economic change in Arab countries, particularly Egypt, as well as U.S. policy in the Middle East.
- Islamic Institutions in Arab States: Mapping the Dynamics of Control, Co-option, and ContentionResearch
- From Hardware to Holism: Rebalancing America’s Security Engagement With Arab StatesResearch
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Robert Springborg, Emile Hokayem, Becca Wasser, …
Recent Work
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
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