Chaos and Counterrevolution
After the Arab Spring
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published:15th Aug '15
Should be back in stock very soon
This collection of Richard Falk's writings provides unique insight into the momentous events of the Arab Spring, examining how the uprisings came to lose their way.
The Arab Spring has consistently confounded expectations. While many in the West believed that the uprisings would usher in a new age of liberal, secular democracy in the Middle East, in reality their outcomes have proven to be both complex and contradictory. Most ominously, many countries have already experienced a dramatic counterrevolution, in the form of renewed dictatorship, while others have simply descended into chaos and internal conflict. Richard Falk, a distinguished scholar of international law and former UN Rapporteur on Palestine, has been writing on the Arab Spring since its inception in 2011. Chaos and Counterrevolution brings together his collected writings on the uprisings and their aftermath across the region, and offers a unique perspective on these momentous events. Through essays whose subjects range from the Syrian civil war and the emergence of ISIS to the coup in Egypt and the Gezi Park protests in Turkey, Falk explores how and why the Arab Spring has drifted so far from its original goals, and demonstrates how the West has exacerbated the problem through inept and counterproductive interventionism. Chaos and Counterrevolution provides invaluable insight into what has already become one of the defining episodes of our age.
Chaos and Counterrevolution: After the Arab Spring offers a tour de force inside the Middle East region. It presents candid and lucid analyses of interconnected complexities ranging from a lurking colonial past and hegemonic policies, to rising expectations and dashed hopes following the Arab spring. Richard Falk depicts the essence of the struggle between hegemony and emancipation in the region. He tells it as it is: painful but very real. * Emad El-Din Shahin, editor-in-chief, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics *
Richard Falk did it again. A masterly survey and critical analysis by an expert with knowledge and wisdom. Chaos and Counterrevolution is a subtle and sophisticated assessment of what is going on in the MENA region After the Arab Spring. It is a major contribution to the field as well as (Critical) International Relations Theory. Highly recommended. * Fuat Keyman, director of the Istanbul Policy Center and professor, Sabanci University *
The blogposts collected in this volume showcase both the immediacy of contemporaneous reporting and the reflective, thoughtful analysis that has characterized all of Falk’s writing over many decades. His deep knowledge of the region (especially Turkey) gives extraordinary depth and texture to his compelling insights; and the power of his narrative and the excitements - and disappointments - he records impel the narrative forward with intense force. * Laleh Khalili, author of Time in the Shadows: Confinement in Counterinsurgencies and professor, SOAS, University of London *
Richard Falk's groundbreaking investigative work on Palestine and Israel is well known. But he has also followed the swift tide of events in the rest of the Middle East with fine attention to the complex questions of international law and morality that they inevitably raise. Chaos and Counterrevolution provides crucial analysis, helping readers worldwide to understand what has been happening in many Arab countries, and in Turkey and Iran. * Marwan Muasher, vice president for studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace *
ISBN: 9781783606696
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 344g
256 pages