ABSTRACT
Since the late 1970s, unarmed revolutions against authoritarian leaders have become relatively common occurrences on the world’s political stage. Bahrain constitutes an interesting case study since it is one of the few - if not the only - Middle Eastern countries that emerged from revolution-seeking mass protests in 2011 without either regime change or civil war. This chapter examines the international contexts in which Bahrain’s attempt at an unarmed revolution played out in order to understand why the country’s rulers did not find themselves constrained by their relationship with the United States. It begins with a short discussion of existing scholarship on the international dimensions of contentious politics. The chapter summarizes the key events of Bahrain’s uprising before examining the international contexts in which the government’s repression played out and the ways in which it justified its brutal response. Finally, it summarizes the findings and articulates a revised version of the iron cage of liberalism argument.
