New Report Analyzes a Decade of “Defiance and Resistance” in the Arab Region

A new Corporation-funded report from grantee the Soufan Center analyzes the history, evolution, and demands of the Arab uprisings over the last decade.

By Carnegie Corporation of New York June 1, 2021

Arab Region Transitions

For the last decade, diverse social movements across the Arab region have expressed the same demand: a desire for citizen-driven, national self-determination and the end of militarized states and societies.

A new Corporation-funded report by writer Rami Khouri and Corporation grantee the Soufan Center analyzes the “defiance and resistance” rippling across the region by examining the history, evolution, and demands of Arab uprisings over the last decade, as well as illustrating four case studies from Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Sudan.

“The dynamics fostered by the wars and revolutions plaguing many Arab states today represent the most consequential national transformations since World War I, culminating in a period of civilian defiance and resistance that was especially distinct between 2010–2020,” explains Khouri in the report’s introduction. “In short, states and societies are battling to define themselves for the first time in a century on the basis of the consent of the governed.”

Drawing on his five decades of research and travel in the region, as well as his role as the director of global engagement and adjunct professor of journalism at the American University of Beirut, Khouri’s report, The Decade of Defiance & Resistance: Reflections on Arab Revolutionary Uprisings and Responses from 2010 – 2020, explores the ways in which the will of its people are slowly beginning to create real change across the Arab landscape.

TOP: People wave flags and chant slogans during a gathering to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Arab Spring in Martyrs Square on February 17, 2021, in Tripoli, Libya. (Credit: Nada Harib/Getty Images)