Schiocchet, Leonardo. 2011. Far Middle East, Brave New World: The Building of the Middle East and the Arab Spring. In The Perspective of the World Review, Vol.3, No.2. August 2011 (English Edition). Brasilia/Brazil: IPEA. pp.37-80.

The main purpose of this article is to explain the so-called Arab Spring not mainly in the political context of the last few decades, but rather from a wider historical perspective on the region. The Arab Spring is just one moment in a complex process of settlement and overlap of political, social, ethnic, economic, religious and national forces. This text is as much about the main historical issues related to the Middle East as it is about the main contemporary perspectives on it – the Middle East is defined here as a cultural area. This text seeks to answer the following questions: what caused the Arab Spring and what does it imply politically? What is intended with these revolts and, thus, what will come next? Finally, should we fear “the Islamists”?

Keywords: Arabic Spring; revolution; post-colonialism; Middle East; nationalism; religion; ethnicity

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