ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the Arab Revolution, its causes, courses of development, and consequences in several different Arab countries, and explains how and why it was for the most part suppressed. Key factors that led to the series of mass protests and civil wars that collectively comprise the Arab Revolution are explained. The chapter focuses first on Tunisia where the revolution began and where arguably it was most successful and then on Egypt where an authoritarian regime was overthrown, democracy attempted, only to be replaced by another authoritarian regime. The uprisings and civil war in Libya are then described, as well as the outside intervention that ensured the destruction of the regime but left the country fragmented. The chapter then moves to Syria where uprisings also led to civil war and to the involvement of multiple warring factions and militaries, both domestic and foreign. The chapter concludes by covering Bahrain which provides one of the clearest illustrations of how the intervention of outside powers helped an authoritarian regime defeat the democracy movement and how a wide range of techniques can be used to surveil and control a population.
