Abstract
Most western social scientists, Arab academics and secular intellectuals alike utterly failed to predict the powerful social and political explosion that led to a change of regime in several Arab countries, including Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen. Among Arab Nations, this phenomenon has been referred to as an ‘Arab Awakening’, while in the west it has been called an ‘Arab Spring’. Tariq Ramadan explains that there is a lack of consensus on how to refer to this historical turning point for the Arab world; ‘some call it the “Arab Spring”, others, the “Arab Revolutions”; still others more cautious, use the neutral term “Arab uprisings”. It remains difficult to ascertain, and to assess, what has happened, and what is happening, in the Middle East’. He goes on to say, ‘An irreversible shift is clearly underway but no one is able to pinpoint exactly what is going on in these mass protests or to predict their ultimate outcome’ (Ramadan, 2011). No matter what name we give it, the phenomenon was a result of a combination of both socioeconomic and political grievances. Amid this complexity, our aim is to understand if the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provided a concrete background to illuminate the preludes to the Arab Spring.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Did the Millennium Development Goals Work?: Meeting Future Challenges with Past Lessons |
| Number of pages | 36 |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
| Externally published | Yes |