Locking Down or Rising Up? Protest movements adapt to COVID-19

     

With #COVID19 inflicting severe economic pain in countries around the world and brutally exposing governance failures, the numbers of unsettled people are on track to rise rather than fall despite the inability to gather in public, says a new Carnegie analysis. While lockdowns and quarantines may appear to provide a timely respite to besieged governments, protesters are adapting and evolving, notes the report, The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Reshaping Global Protests.

A forthcoming Virtual Dialogue (above) co-hosted in partnership with the International Republican Institute,* will feature regional experts and leading thinkers exploring people-powered protest movements across the Middle East and how they will be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Foreign Policy writes.

Does the pandemic spell victory for counterrevolutionary forces across the region? Or can popular movements adapt and even thrive in this new reality? Drawing on original research and on-the-ground experiences, Foreign Policy and the International Republican Institute will look at how COVID-19 has paved the way for executive power and elite overreach to undermine the call for democratic rights. Join the conversation online: #LockDownRiseUp RSVP

IRI seeks to appoint a Program Officer – Middle East and North Africa (Iraq – HT: Global Jobs).
*A core institute of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). 

Credit: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

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