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The next meeting of the Forum will be on July 14th in room VG06 (60) on SOAS's vernon Square campus from 4 - 6 pm.
The subject (The Arab Spring - some anthropological perspectives) will be introduced by Jeremy Keenan.
If you know of interested parties who may be interested in participating, and have particular perspectives on the unfolding events, please invite them.
Jeremy's introductory remarks,are copied below.
Some prominent political leaders and media opinion writers have described the revolts, now known as the ‘Arab Spring’ or ‘Arab reawakening’, that have swept (in varying degree) across the Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East in the last few months as the most important event of this century (so far), equivalent to or perhaps more important than the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening up of eastern Europe.
Although such comparisons are debatable, there is no doubt that the ‘Arab Spring’ will leave an indelible mark on the countries of North Africa and the Middle East (the Maghreb and the Mashreq), their peoples and Arabs throughout the world.
But, there are still as many questions as answers. The biggest, of course, are: ‘Where are these revolts and this movement (or movements) going?’; ‘Will the Arab Spring become a summer?’ Or, will counter-revolutionary forces prevail? What will be the impact of these events on the lives, hopes, beliefs and psyches of the hundreds of millions of peoples of these regions? Already, several thousand have been killed. Will these regions be transformed lastingly from autocracies to democracies, or something else? What can be said about the nature and role of violence? Why and who is, and is not, intervening? And, why the selectivity? (e.g. why Libya and not Syria?). And, most important of all for us, what can or should anthropology and anthropologists say and do?
By way of introducing these questions and this whole arena of debate, I will kick off with three broad questions:
FIRST: the Arab Spring is a reaction against the overly repressive, autocratic and undemocratic regimes of the region. All of these regimes, along with those of the ‘West’, in varying degree (most wholeheartedly), have ‘bought in’ to the post 9/11 Global War on Terror (GWOT). The ruling elites and associated security apparatuses (‘mukhabarat’) of these countries have all, without exception, used the GWOT to become more repressive in the knowledge that they have the backing of the West. As an Algerian once said to me: “They [the security police] have become even bigger bullies now they know they have the Americans behind them.”
The question is: To what extent is the ‘Arab Spring’ related to the GWOT?
Put another way: To what extent has the West’s support of these regimes in the GWOT (e.g. ‘special rendition’, acceptance of torture and other abuses of human rights, provision of security/military equipment and training, provision of disinformation, etc.) encouraged these regimes in their repression of ‘minorities’ and ‘legitimate forms of opposition’.
This question is raised by Yasmine Ryan in “Anti-terrorism and uprisings.” (Al Jazeera 25.02.11) and, in the specific context of UK policy towards Algeria, by Jeremy Keenan in “UK in North Africa: myths and contradictions.” (Al Jazeera, 16.04.11).
A more wide-ranging article entitled: “What is going on in the Sahel?” (Jeremy Keenan), written in February and forthcoming in the July or August issue of Le Monde Diplomatique, gives a summary account of how the GWOT and the Al Qaeda ‘franchise’ has been ‘fabricated’, ‘manipulated’ and ‘managed’ by the West and local regimes.
Le%20Monde%20Diplomatique.%20Feb.%202011.%20What%20happened%20to%20the%20Sahel%20%287%29.pdfhed)
SECONDAll across the region – in Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and even Tunisia – there have been signs of ‘possible reversal’, that the ‘Spring’ may not become ‘Summer’, that revolts may be defeated, deflected, ‘hijacked’, or, as perhaps in Libya, driven into stalemates.
The question I would like to pose is:
Can we identify counter-revolutionary forces, as in the cases of the roles of the Algerian and Saudi Arabian regimes (in the Maghreb and Mashreq respectively)? What are their relationships to the West (i.e. NATO member states) and other ‘elites’ and interest groups both within and outside the region? And, will they be successful?
To give some background to this question (updated as at June 9), I have attached a short article from Al Jazeera which explains the ‘secret’ deal between the US, France and Algeria within the latest (May-June) context of the Libyan situation:
“Algeria’s ‘one-eyed’ American General.” (Jeremy Keenan), scheduled for publication on Aljazeera.net (English) sometime after Sunday June 12.
Al%20Jazeera%20Briefing%209.%20Algeria%27s%20one%20eyed%20American%20general.pdf
I should perhaps explain that this article has been requested by certain ‘opposition’ (to the regimes) groups in Algeria and North Africa in order to make it more difficult for Algeria’s DRS (intelligence services - ‘mukhabarat’) to fire a SAM on a civilian aircraft in the Sahara-Sahel region, as members of the ‘opposition’ fear they will do, to demonstrate the ‘reality’ of the threat posed by Al Qaeda in the region now that it is supposedly equipped with heavy weaponry, such as SAMs, taken from Qadhafi’s armouries.
THIRD
What are the implications of these events for neighbouring and other regions? I will make a few introductory remarks on the ‘nightmare scenario’ that is emerging in the Sahel (Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad). Other contributors can perhaps comment on other adjoining countries and regions, such as Turkey, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, etc….
And, of course, now that Bin Laden is dead, where, if anywhere, is Al Qaeda in all this, especially with both Al Qaeda and Islamists being so noticeably absent from the ‘Arab Spring’ (in spite of the West’s pre-occupation with these ‘bogeymen’ and its ensuing clear ‘intelligence failure’ in being unable to give even an inkling of a prediction of the ‘Arab Spring’)?
Jeremy Keenan
June 9.
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