Reading Response #1 – New Arab Wars

Allison Brown Government and Politics of the Middle East Eric Nigh January 23, 2022 Reading Response #1 – New Arab Wars Chapter 1 of Marc Lynch’s The New Arab Wars: Uprisings and Anarchy in the Middle East (2016) covers a myriad of topics relating to the buildup of the Arab uprisings, their subsequent failures, and the changed regional order and proxy warfare which remains. With the vacuum of regional influence in the late 1980s, Lynch notes that the lack of another external regional power, such as the USSR in the Middle East, forced regional plays to choose to either accept the interventions and influence of the United States and be irrelevant in the international system or to act as rogue states. (11) Regarding post-9/11 US intervention, Lynch remarks that it is not a coincidence that interventionism increased in tandem with anti-American sentiments in the Middle East. (13) The United States’ “imperium” as Lynch describes, had always been a system that would tolerate human rights violations of its regional allies if they cooperated on the export of oil, anti-Communist measures, counterterrorism efforts, and the containment of Iran. (22) Leading to the Arab uprisings were two different blocs established in the Middle East. The “Rejection Bloc” consisted of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas who stood opposed to the “Moderation Bloc” led by Sunni dictators allied with the US – and indirectly with Israel—Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the UAE. (15) These blocs became the de order border of the Middle East leading up regional change. The Arab uprisings started in Tunisia in 2010 with the selfimmolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in response to the Tunisian government’s seizure of his business and police corruption. Out of Tunisia, mass demonstrations spread across the Middle East and Northern Africa, famously including protests like that of Tahir Square which called for President Hosni Mubarak’s removal that would come after eighteen days of public demonstrations. Following the Arab uprisings subsequent “failure”, with the return of even more repressive and violent government structures, the US looked to “right-size” foreign policy, leaving what some would call a strategic failure in states such as Syria during the Obama administration. Chapter 1 concludes with Lynch denoting the four intersecting lines of conflict: the Iranian-Saudi conflict, tensions over Sunni-Arab leadership, challenges from mainstream (Muslim Brotherhood, Salafi) to violent (al-Qaeda, IS) Islamist groups, and the broad tensions between autocratic regimes and politically mobilized societies. (44) To start, Lynch’s choice to use the phrase “Arab uprisings” instead of “Arab Spring” is a conscious choice to avoid the phrase of Western origin and bias, instead opting for the phrase “Arab uprisings” which is more encompassing of ongoing democratic protests in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Lynch’s transitions in the chapter construct a storyline of continued Arab conflicts, which are often overlapping and not monocausal. This framework leads the reader to then better understand why the Arab uprisings shook the regional order of MENA, but more importantly, how regional interests and lasting alliances with Western powers in some ways allowed for the region to return to a pre-uprising status quo to maintain regional advantages. Lynch also draws meaningful comparisons between the dangerous potentials of regional instability and the opportunities for Islamist extremists to recruit and expand into Syria and Iraq due in part to setbacks and regional disorder resulting from the Arab uprisings. Lynch’s argument is valid and is built upon by wide availability to social media, using which groups like the Islamic State were able to spread their videos and propaganda globally, reaching a broader population previously unprecedented by previous groups like al-Qaeda. (38) Looking to future chapters, Lynch acknowledges the changes in the regional order which would lead to continued Allison Brown Government and Politics of the Middle East Eric Nigh January 23, 2022 destabilization and violence in the MENA as autocrats and regional powers sought to restore the pre-Arab uprisings, but with foreshadowing of continued popular political dissent.