Dmitri Trenin
{
"authors": [
"Dmitri Trenin"
],
"type": "legacyinthemedia",
"centerAffiliationAll": "",
"centers": [
"Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
"Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center",
"Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center"
],
"collections": [
"Arab Awakening"
],
"englishNewsletterAll": "",
"nonEnglishNewsletterAll": "",
"primaryCenter": "Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center",
"programAffiliation": "",
"programs": [],
"projects": [
"Eurasia in Transition"
],
"regions": [
"Egypt",
"Levant",
"Maghreb",
"Middle East",
"North Africa",
"Russia"
],
"topics": [
"Political Reform",
"Foreign Policy"
]
}Source: Getty
Russia Tries to Manage Arab Awakening From the Outside
Russia is clearly concerned with the rise of Islamist extremists in the Middle East and is looking for ways to prevent destabilization in the region. At the same time, it is seeking to improve ties with various Arab countries.
Source: World Politics Review
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Mohammed Morsi, a former Muslim Brotherhood leader and Egypt’s first post-Arab Spring president, even as Russia continued to back Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus against an assorted opposition that includes the Syrian branch of the Brotherhood. This apparent contradiction illustrates the challenges Russia is facing in the post-Arab Spring Middle East.Like virtually everyone else, Moscow was surprised by the groundswell of change that began in the Arab world in early 2011. Experts advising the Russian government call this a tectonic shift and compare its impact to that of the two defining periods in the region’s 20th-century history: the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the secular revolutions of the 1950s and 1960s. The present “Arab Awakening,” they opine, may take years, even decades, to unfold and is likely to transform the entire shape and fabric of the region. Its future course and dynamics are hard to predict, but in the end it will give a boost to the processes of social and political modernization that so far have largely bypassed the Arab Middle East and North Africa. ...
Read the full text of this article in World Politics Review.
About the Author
Former Director, Carnegie Moscow Center
Trenin was director of the Carnegie Moscow Center from 2008 to early 2022.
- Mapping Russia’s New Approach to the Post-Soviet SpaceCommentary
- What a Week of Talks Between Russia and the West RevealedCommentary
Dmitri Trenin
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.
More Work from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Book Review of Enduring Hostility: The Making of America’s Iran PolicyResearch
A review of a detailed account of how antipathy toward Tehran has assumed a life and logic of its own in Washington, DC.
Jane Darby Menton
- The Dual Imperative in Turkish Foreign Policy: Right-Wing Populists and Their OppositionPaper
Turkish right-wing populists have been trying to advance the country’s middle-power goals based on perceptions of what the public wants, but they have been doing so in ways that reinforce their project of autocratic political consolidation.
Murat Somer
- Trump Can Play Kingmaker in Latin America. He Can’t Build Lasting Influence.Commentary
In Colombia and elsewhere in the region, the United States is trying to shape election outcomes—but at what cost?
Oliver Stuenkel, Adrian Feinberg
- In Yemen, Climate Finance Must Respond to Entrenched InstabilityArticle
The world’s climate adaptation funds must adapt to address the ways that climate change is deepening state fragility.
Ray Salvatore Jennings, Paul Andrew Mayewski
- Iran War Fallout Gifts Putin Diplomatic Victory at ASEAN SummitCommentary
Russia looks set to reap economic benefits from closer ties with Southeast Asian countries that are keen to find reliable energy suppliers and diversify trade ties.
Alexander Gabuev