Military Responses to the Arab Uprisings and the Future of Civil-Military Relations in the Middle East

Analysis from Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria

W. Taylor

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781137410047
• eBook ISBN: 9781137410054
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book explains Arab military responses to the social uprisings which began in 2011. Through a comparative case study analysis of Egyptian, Tunisian, Libyan, and Syrian militaries, it explains why militaries fractured, supported the regime in power, or removed their presidents.

Notes

1 Introduction

1. For example, see F. Gregory Gause III, “Why Middle East Studies Missed the Arab Spring: The Myth of Authoritarian Stability,” Foreign Affairs 90, 4 (July/August 2011): 81–90; Kenneth McKenzie and Elizabeth Packard, “Enduring Interests and Partnerships: Military-to-Military Relationships in the Arab Spring,” Prism 3, 1 (December 2011): 99–106; Dennis Blair, “Military Support for Democracy,” Prism 3, 3 (June 2012): 3–16.

2. Roger Owen, The Rise and Fall of Arab Presidents for Life (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012).

3. H. E. Yithrak Levenon (former Israeli ambassador to Egypt), interview by author, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2012.

4. Ashraf Khalil, Liberation Square: Inside the Egyptian Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2011), 8.

5. See Anthony Cordesman’s 2011 report on turmoil in the Middle East: Stability in the Middle East: The Other Side of Security (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2011).

6. Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (New York: Crown Business, 2012), 68–81.

7. Ellen Lust-Kar, Structuring Conflict in the Arab World: Incumbents, Opponents, and Institutions (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

8. Owen, Presidents for Life, 54.

9. Ted Gurr, Why Men Rebel (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970), 13.

10. Louis Kriesberg and Bruce W. Dayton, Constructive Conflicts: From Escalation to Resolution, 4th ed. (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2012), 49–80.

11. Suzanne Maloney, “The Economic Dimension: The Price of Freedom,” in The Arab Awakening: America and the Transformation of the Middle East, ed. Kenneth Pollack, et al. (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2011), 66–75.

12. Alison Pargeter, Libya: the Rise and Fall of Gaddafi (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013), 6.

13. Owen, Presidents for Life, 52.

14. Bernard Lewis, “Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East,” Foreign Affairs (May/June 2005): 36–51.

15. Annia Ciezadlo, “Let Them Eat Bread: How Food Subsidies Prevent (and Provoke) Revolutions in the Middle East,” Foreign Affairs 23 (2011).

16. Kriesberg and Dayton, Constructive Conflicts, 49.

17. For a deeper discussion of social movement literature, see Dennis Chong, Collective Action and the Civil Rights Movement (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1991); Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency 1930–1970 (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1970); Terry Moe, The Organization of Interests: Incentives and the Internal Dynamics of Political Interest Groups (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1980).

18. Shibley Telhami, “Arab Public Opinion: What Do They Want?” in The Arab Awakening: America and...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• One  Introduction
• Two  The Past and Future of Arab Civil-Military Relations
• Three  Modeling Military Decision Making in Periods of Social Unrest
• Four  The Tunisian Military’s “Ambitious Support” of the Arab Awakening
• Five  The Syrian Military’s “Fervent Support” of Bashar al-Assad
• Six  The Egyptian Military’s “Reluctant Support” of the Arab Awakening
• Seven  The Libyan Military’s “Fractured Support” of Muammar Gaddafi
• Eight  US Influence on Arab Decision Making in Times of Social Unrest
• Nine  Arbiters of Social Unrest: The Future of Arab Civil-Military Relations
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index