Almost four years later, the opportunity for political transition in the Middle East and North Africa seems to have narrowed.

After the major uprisings of 2011 in Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen, many assumed that the movements emerged spontaneously directed by tech-savvy, young revolutionaries. However, citizen activism in the Arab world was already adapting to changing internal political and social dynamics in the preceding years.

The three years since 2011 have witnessed enormous changes in activism across the Arab world, but the full story of the Arab Spring has yet to be written.

A critical look at the dynamics of activism in the Arab world since the Arab uprisings of 2011 and the interplay between the domestic and regional contexts in different Arab countries.

A focus on the differences between political actors and their implications for political development could distract attention from trying to understand the critical institutional changes underway in countries across the Arab world.