Arabic Spring: The International Distribution of Power - Essay Example

Arabic Spring Arab Spring has brought a new regional political landscape with a number of features, which significant challenges, for U.S. diplomacy. Among the challenges is the role that authoritarian such as Russia, China, and Iran states will assumed as this create regional and international diplomacy, which complicate U.S. effort to respond to uprisings that begun in Tunisia in December 2010 and swept through the region. As these authoritarian actors struggle to absorb the consequences of the Arab Spring including the potential effect of Arab democratization on their regional politics and influence, they have have consolidate their stand to counterweight the effect on the Middle East, United States, and the western allies. The effort to lead authoritarian to enhance their regional influence is not effective because of different reasons. Various regimes have a different view on the opportunities and constrains created by Arabic Spring, the influence may require medication latter, their effort may end up shaping the newly Arabs elected governments. The International Distribution of Power About ten years before the rise of Arab Spring, there was the rise in global authoritarianism with an attempt of Arab autocracies to adopt their own ruling to new domestic and regional challenges. The wide implications of authoritarian collective action lead to Arabic Spring. In analyzing their effect, we stress on two related dynamics, which include the way in which powerful authoritarian regimes work as a team to advance collective interests in sustaining or consolidating institutional and strategic alternative to the western democracy. Secondly is their attempt use the Arab Spring as a mobilization tool to gain regional support, democratic powers such as that witnessed in Turkey, Brazil, South Africa, among other nations. With their sympathetic critiques of western economy and their geographical strategic dominance, these states are seen as the global authoritarians as potential allies might enlist that in efforts to redefine regional security and political structure, thus threatening the United States aim of advancing their interest. Globalization Globalization is a process where in different fields, the world is working together as a single society, marked by common institution, organizations, and shared culture of consciousness. Different protests are not fuelled by ideologies but are driven by social and economic grievances and political frustrations. The Arabic spring is not a unified revolution but a series of national uprisings that arise because of international social-economic grievances. Among the countries that have experience various level of critical unrest includes Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Tunisia. Some analysts have reported that the revolution was part of another global protest that erupted across different regions across Europe, Greece, and Spain protesting against hash measures and political influence introduce by Israel targeting inflated living cost. The demonstration process was also witness in across the global south protesting against the cost of living and an end to corruption in India. Some analyst argued that superpower regimes have curtailed levels of global level of integration to suppress some regions from the perceived threats of globalization such as state sovereignty. Globalization has bypassed the wider population, reinforcing elite’s networks and the personalization of power and therefore cannot encourage equity. Some dictators such as Mubarak and Gaddafi could arrange there national agendas around personal consolidation of power, ensuring that the population remained depoliticized, ineffectual, and disorganized. Statistics shows that the rebellions were demanding for dignity and protesting against humiliation by arbitrary, unaccountability, and increase predatory by tyrannies. Statistics demonstrates that the economic globalization has benefited some countries, which include Libya and Egypt with significant improvement in sustainable economic growth. However, internationally common issues of uneven national development and distribution of wealth were seen; these are clear corruption by the opportunist corrupt political. These products of globalization, along with food crises and the economic crisis, really contributed to the demonstration. It is clear that the globalization failed to fulfill expectations as superpower ensure that its power remain within their mandate. International Organizations In 2012 president Mohamed Morsi, while in china, explained the benefits that both the chinese government and the new emerging power would get if they come together to pursue economic cooperation, trade, and investment. His trip to China occurred against the a backdrop of greatly accelerated economic activities in the region during the previous decade. A report show that by 2009, the number of export from Chinese to Middle East rose to $100 billion, with the Middle East exports to China rising by 25% and the investment factor growing ten, from $1 billion to $10 billion by the year 2010. China is the main foreign investor in both Iraq and Iran. Saudi Arabia also hired a Chinese Railway Cooperation to construct a mecca monorail project. Different countries have gone through a series of complicated and sensitive transformation processes of building new leadership, change of constitution, transformation of justice systems, reform in cultural and education systems and attempt to work as one nation (Bruns, Highfield, & Burgess, 2013). Public Opinion and Voting Patterns As witnessed in the protest event in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, and most other Arab countries, many people began using the term Arabic Spring to describe consequences of what people were doing in different regions. It seems that the term did not penetrate the minds of Israelites and even many did not accept it and believe the positive and optimistic connotations. For instance, the minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe stated that the event was dramatic and historic but now Arabic spring (Gillespie, 2013). It is interesting to note that segmentation by voting pattern show that voters from religious and ultra-orthodox parties tend to show negative opinion in the pattern. However, when we post some question about the probability of a government with religious leader leading democratically and protecting the rights of the minority, it was the voters for the religious who respondent positively, while others believe that it was impossible (Bruns, Highfield, & Burgess, 2013). The News Media The research shows that social media played a major role in shaping political debates in the Arab Spring. New revolutionary events often preceded major events, and the social media have been the main communication network across the international borders. Social media spread a cascaded message of freedom and democracy across the North Africa and the Middle East and facilitated the political upraising. People who have the same opinion about democracy build extensive networks and organized political action. Social media became a great tool for a greater freedom (Bruns, Highfield, & Burgess, 2013). Press reports, as by the standard of press, are expected to naturally provide original and non-distorted pictures of the scene. Media have attempted to cover extreme phenomenon extensively including any act of human right violation, and have been reluctant to give slow and complex processes that may draw less public interest and sometime make it hard to document it clearly. For instance, the killing act of the US delegation in Benghazi, Israel and the killing of the ambassador were well reported by the newspaper reporters who ensured that they reach most of the Israelites. On the the other hand the events that occurred in Libya, such as the defeat of the Muslim Brotherhood and emergence of liberation parties in the Libyan election, were not well covered and were only given to those who showed interest in the subject. Media coverage and presentation of the information shape public interpretation and development of partial pictures. Therefore, it is important for the media to be non-partisan and present all the information as original as they are (Bruns, Highfield, & Burgess, 2013). Interest groups When Egypt adopts the temporary martial law and turmoil riling the Middle East, most thought that the Arab Spring had failed. But the evolutionary stories in the region were different. The Arab world changed irrevocably, and transitions market by conflicts continued. In Cairo, Egypt history appeared to have repeated itself when crowds filled Tahrir Square and demand the end of military dictatorship. Then, just after two days the crowd filled Tahrir Square again to demand the restoration of dictatorship. Just within a week of the coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of Mohamed Morsi, massacre has begun the way it was in the first in Cairo (Gillespie, 2013). Political Parties Beyond the collective sense of endeavor and power, the Arabic Spring movement was united to pursue programmatic agendas for the post regime change of transformation. The election results in Egypt proved that Tahrir was not part of Egypt and went on to demonstrate that neither was Cairo. There was a dominance of Islamist parties in the Egypt elections taking about 67% of the vote, which was not surprising. Muslim Brotherhood protected and fosters their national organization under the rule of Sadat and Mubarak. The years of brutal suppression alternate with toleration and cooptation that turned the Brotherhood into a cautious and cooperative organization. The proportion of their representation in parliament and its organizational ability has proven their capacity to bring alot of effect on the Egyptian politics and win early victories in their fight to shape the transition (Gillespie, 2013). Congress New political forces resulted due to Arabic Spring and shape and most elected leaders were involved in the earlier international decision marking. Therefore, it will take time develop and understand how the international systems work and the obligation involved. The congress influences the foreign security policy as well as the decision made by the country and their conclusion has an impact in the international development (Gillespie, 2013). The Presidency The second country to enter into civil war during Arabic spring was Syria. The President of Syria decides to undermine the political based on the rule that his father had created during his 37-years of power. At the start of political restlessness in beginning of the Arabic Spring, leaders in Syria divided into two. There were those who were supporting the uprising demonstration and those who were supporting the Syrian president. As expected, the extended Syrian’s army political campaign was mostly in urban areas and was against the protest in various regions of the country. The violence observed by the regime quickly forced military action against the opponents. The local coordination committees were formed in different communities to provide protection on the ongoing demonstration and soon Syria descended into civil war. Bureaucracy Some coalition with some commercial interest was threatened that economic change could bring them the crony capitalist of the old regime and most of their business allies were still on their high rank of bureaucracy. As it was in the Egypt, major indigenous economic interest may have their collaborators within the government to place clear limits on how transformation after the revolution government would be. These issues dominated the part of the regime transition because the economic shock created by the troop revolutions was motivated largely by their own economic exclusion. References Bruns, A., Highfield, T., & Burgess, J. “The Arab Spring and Social Media Audiences: English and Arabic Twitter Users and Their Networks.” American Behavioral Scientist, 57(7), 2013, 871-898. Gillespie, M. “BBC Arabic, Social Media and Citizen Production: An Experiment in Digital Democracy before the Arab Spring.” Theory, Culture & Society, 30(4), 2013, 92-130. Regions Arabic learners take refuge in Lebanon. The Daily Star (Beirut, Lebanon), 2011, p. 31. Read More