CONCEPTUALIZING RECENT MOVEMENTS IN THE ARAB WORLD

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assisstant Professor; Reginal Studies Department, University of Tehran

Abstract

Conceptualizing what is happening in some parts of Arab World has generated
heated debate among academicians, pundits, policy makers and journalists. These
events have been called: Arab Revolutions, Arab Spring, Islamic Awakening,
Rebellion and Revolts among other things. Conceptual clarifications and definitional
demarcations can help us to understand these changes better. In this paper an
attempt has been made to evaluate and critique different definitions of revolutions
and apply these definitions of the revolution to the events of the Arab World in order
to assess if they can be called revolution. Definitions of revolutions have been
divided to Consequence Oriented, Process Oriented and Goal Oriented definitions.
It has been concluded that we are better off not to call these transformations,
revolutions.

Keywords