ABSTRACT

As this book went to press a wave of popular protest was sweeping through the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). What developed into the ‘Arab Spring’ led to the rapid demise of the Ben Ali and Mubarak regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and intensifying mass opposition to the regimes in Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen. Its size and contagious overspill distinguished the civil uprisings from other expressions of discontent and demonstrated the magnitude of the socio-economic and political challenges facing the region. They also revealed the narrow social base of support underpinning long-standing authoritarian rulers, and their reliance on the use of coercion or the threat of force. The popular mobilisation did not spare the Gulf states, although the nature and depth of protest varied widely. Nevertheless, the trajectory of protest reflected and reinforced many of the difficulties of transitioning toward sustainable post-oil political and economic structures identified in this book.