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Source: Getty

In The Media

Ghosts of the Arab Spring

Supporting Arab autocrats may produce some short-term gains, but at the price of long-term disaster.

Link Copied
By Amr Hamzawy and Michael McFaul
Published on Aug 22, 2016

Source: Hoover Digest

Five years after the Arab Spring, democracy seems a distant dream in the Middle East. Arab ruling elites, royal families, militaries, security services, and some businesspeople welcome this outcome. Restoring stability, the argument goes, is more important than democracy. Many Western governments have embraced this logic as well. Threatened as a result of state failure and an accompanying terrorist upsurge, US and European officials now argue that the most urgent need in the Middle East is fighting the Islamic State and its affiliates—a fight that requires collaboration with autocratic rulers. Strengthening Arab autocrats—including, for some, even the mass murderer Bashar al-Assad—is an evil necessary to defeating the Islamic State in Syria, Iraq, and the rest of the region...

Read the full article at the Hoover Digest. 

About the Authors

Amr Hamzawy

Director, Middle East Program

Amr Hamzawy is a senior fellow and the director of the Carnegie Middle East Program. His research and writings focus on Egypt’s and other middle powers’ involvement in regional security in the Middle East, particularly through collective diplomacy and multilateral conflict resolution

Michael McFaul

Former Senior Associate

In addition to his role at Carnegie, McFaul is Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and associate professor of political science at Stanford University.

Authors

Amr Hamzawy
Director, Middle East Program
Amr Hamzawy
Michael McFaul
Former Senior Associate
Michael McFaul
Political ReformDemocracySecurityMiddle EastNorth AfricaEgyptLevant

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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