Category: Morocco

Arab Spring: Unfinished business or tragic legacy?

     

The uprisings of the Arab Spring seemed to represent a dramatic turning point in history, the sudden collapse of regimes and political systems few expected to be so fragile. But… Read more »

Arab Spring 2.0? Five lessons from 2011

     

The conditions that spurred the Arab uprisings, including government corruption, failed economies and deteriorating social services, have only intensified in many countries, exacerbated by 2020’s Covid-19 pandemic, notes analyst Megan O’Toole…. Read more »

North Africa’s transitions: prospects & obstacles

     

Like authoritarians elsewhere, [Arab autocrats] rely mostly on domestic tools, notes Amy Hawthorne, deputy director of research at the Project on Middle East Democracy. These include control over the military… Read more »

Morocco’s ‘political earthquake’ from the people not the palace

     

Moroccans, fed up with the slow pace of social and economic progress, have been boycotting three major national companies, demonstrating that the public is increasingly taking an alternative approach to… Read more »

To integrate Islamist parties, invest in civil society

     

If Egypt’s liberal activists had tolerated Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi’s illiberal but weak rule until he could be voted out, democracy might have had a chance, David D. Kirkpatrick suggests… Read more »

Egypt’s new NGO law ‘militarizes’ civil society

     

Egypt’s new NGO law has militarized civil society and demonstrates how security leaders have exploited the need to counter a genuine terrorist threat as a justification to suppress political parties,… Read more »

Expected decline in Arab democracy confirms unrealistic optimism

     

The shortcomings of democratization as a vehicle for regional reform and transformation are confirmed by the findings of the latest Arab Democracy Index, analysts suggest. The intra-Arab collaborative index is… Read more »

Rif protests: Morocco’s Bouazizi moment?

     

Morocco’s authorities have carried out a chilling wave of arrests rounding up scores of protesters, activists and bloggers in the Rif, northern Morocco, over the past week following months of… Read more »

‘Secularizing Islamists’ – lessons for countering violent extremism

     

The experience of the Islamic political parties in North Africa shows that they are, just like non-Islamic parties, capable of change and adaptation to changing circumstances, says Mohammed Masbah, an… Read more »