Book Review: The Arab Winter: A Tragedy

the rest: journal of politics and development Previously published as Journal of Global Analysis (JGA) Editors-in-Chief: Ozgur TUFEKCI, Assoc. Prof. | CESRAN International, UK Rahman DAG, Assoc. Prof. | CESRAN International, UK Associate Editors: Alper Tolga BULUT, Assoc. Prof. | CESRAN International, UK Alessia CHIRIATTI, Dr | CESRAN International, UK Assistant Editors: Ceren Hakyemez | CESRAN International, UK Ekrem Ok | CESRAN International, UK Editorial Board Sener AKTURK, Assoc. Prof. | Koç University, Turkey Enrique ALBEROLA, Prof. | Banco de España, Spain Mustafa AYDIN, Prof. | Kadir Has University, Turkey Ian BACHE, Prof. | University of Sheffield, UK Kee-Hong BAE, Prof. | York University, Canada Mark BASSIN, Prof. | Sodertorn University, Sweden Alexander BELLAMY, Prof. | Uni. of Queensland, Australia Richard BELLAMY, Prof. | Uni. College London, UK Andreas BIELER, Prof. | University of Nottingham, UK Pınar BILGIN, Prof. | Bilkent University, Turkey Ken BOOTH, Prof. | Aberystwyth University, UK Stephen CHAN, Prof. | SOAS, University of London, UK Nazli CHOUCRI, Prof. | MIT, USA Judith CLIFTON, Prof. | Universidad de Cantabria, Spain John M. DUNN, Prof. | University of Cambridge, UK Kevin DUNN, Prof. | Hobart and William Smith Colleges, USA Can ERBIL, Assoc. Prof. | Boston College, USA Stephen Van EVERA, Prof. | MIT, USA Marc FLEURBAEY, Prof. | Princeton University, USA Bulent GOKAY, Prof. | Keele University, UK Ayla GOL, Prof. | York St John University, UK Stefano GUZZINI, Prof. | Uppsala Universitet, Sweden David HELD, Prof. | London Sch. of Economics, LSE, UK Tony HERON, Prof. | University of York, UK Raymond HINNEBUSCH, Prof. | Uni. of St Andrews, UK John M. HOBSON, Prof. | University of Sheffield, UK Michael KENNY, Prof. | University of Sheffield, UK Cécile LABORDE, Prof. | University College London, UK Scott LUCAS, Prof. | University of Birmingham, UK Kalypso NICOLAIDIS, Prof. | University of Oxford, UK Ziya ONIS, Prof. | Koc University, Turkey Alp OZERDEM, Prof. | George Mason University, USA Danny QUAH, Prof. | London School of Economics, UK José Gabriel PALMA, Prof. | Cambridge University, UK Jenik RADON, Prof. | Columbia University, USA Oliver RICHMOND, Prof. | University of Manchester, UK Ibrahim SIRKECI, Prof. | Regent’s College London, UK Ian TAYLOR, Prof. | University of St Andrews, UK Ali WATSON, Prof. | University of St Andrews, UK Brian WHITE, Prof. | University of Sheffield, UK Stefan WOLFF, Prof. | University of Birmingham, UK Birol YESILADA, Prof. | Portland State University, USA Hakan YILMAZKUDAY, Assoc. Prof. | Florida International University, USA The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development is published on behalf of the Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN) as an academic e-journal. The articles are brought into use via the website of the journal (https://therestjournal.com/). CESRAN and the Editors of The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development do not expect that readers of the review will sympathise with all the sentiments they find, for some of our writers will flatly disagree with others. It does not accept responsibility for the views expressed in any article, which appears in The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development. * The surnames are listed in alphabetical order. the rest: journal of politics and development Previously published as Journal of Global Analysis (JGA) Indexing & Abstracting ■ Academic Index ■ Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) ■ Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) ■ Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) ■ EBSCO Publishing Inc. ■ EconLit ■ EconPapers ■ Genamics JournalSeek ■ IDEAS ■ Index Islamicus ■ Infomine ■ International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences (IBR) ■ International Bibliography of Periodical Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences (IBZ) ■ International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) ■ International Relations and Security Network (ISN) ■ Lancaster Index to Defence & International Security Literature ■ Peace Palace Library ■ Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) ■ Social Sciences Information Space (SOCIONET) ■ Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory the rest: journal of politics and development Previously published as Journal of Global Analysis (JGA) Vol.12 | No.2 | 2022 TABLE OF CONTENTS RESEARCH ARTICLES 103 Thinking through the Event: Alain Badiou versus Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri By Semra Akay 115 Return and Recuperation Strategies on Returnees to Nigeria: The Libya Episode By A. J. Aluko & D. O. Apeloko & Bello M. Ayodele 135 Politico Legal Dynamics of Seaborne Piracy in the Pelagic Waters of South East Asia By Sreemoyee Sarkar 150 Geopolitical Struggle between Russia and Turkey: The Intersection of Ukraine and Syrian Crises By Rahman Dag REVIEW ARTICLE 163 Arab Spring in Syria and the Rest By I. William Zartman BOOK REVIEWS 172 Adam Goodman The Deportation Machine. America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants By Gennaro Errichiello 176 Rachel McCleary and Robert J Barro The Wealth of Religions: The Political Economy of Believing and Belonging By Nurbanu Yaşar 180 Joseph Masco The Nuclear Borderlands: The Manhattan Project in Post-Cold War New Mexico By Daniyal Talat 184 John G. Matsusaka Let the People Rule: How Direct Democracy Can Meet the Populist Challenge By Robert Nyenhuis 187 Catherine E. De Vries and Sara B. Hobolt Political Entrepreneurs: The Rise of Challenger Parties in Europe By Meltem Ince-Yenilmez 191 Noah Feldman The Arab Winter: A Tragedy By Ramzi Bendebka International Think-tank www.cesran.org Consultancy Research Institute CESRAN International is headquartered in the UK CESRAN International is a member of the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) CESRAN International is a think-tank specialising on international relations in general, and global peace, conflict and development related issues and challenges. The main business objective/function is that we provide expertise at an international level to a wide range of policy making actors such as national governments and international organisations. CESRAN with its provisions of academic and semi-academic publications, journals and a fully-functioning website has already become a focal point of expertise on strategic research and analysis with regards to global security and peace. The Centre is particularly unique in being able to bring together wide variety of expertise from different countries and academic disciplines. The main activities that CESRAN undertakes are providing consultancy services and advice to public and private enterprises, organising international conferences and publishing academic material. Some of CESRAN’s current publications are:  THE REST: Journal of Politics and Development (biannual, peer reviewed) www.therestjournal.com  Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security (biannual, peer reviewed)  Political Reflection Magazine (quarterly) www.politicalreflectionmagazine.com  CESRAN Paper Series  CESRAN Policy Brief  Turkey Focus Policy Brief CESRAN International also organises an annual international conference since 2014 International Conference on Eurasian Politics and Society (IEPAS) www.eurasianpoliticsandsociety.org  Ranked among the top 150 International think tanks BOOK REVIEW Noah Feldman The Arab Winter: A Tragedy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020, ISBN: 9780691194929, 216 pp., $22.95 hb.) After the fall of Tunisia and the regime of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the socalled “Arab Spring” reached Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, and Syria. The regimes of Ben Ali, Gaddafi, and the regimes of Hosni Mubarak and Ali Abdullah Saleh fell, while the Syrian revolution turned into a multilateral war. At the same time, the name of the Arab spring raises controversy due to the violence that accompanied the revolutions and their disappointing results. and Egypt, but with a different means of control by categorizing the population. Feldman also observed that political Islam had been fundamentally transformed after the events. The collapse of brotherhood governments and movements is an end to democratically oriented political Islam as it used to be. To analyze and discuss the three outcomes mentioned above, “The Arab Winter” examines different pivotal events of the Arab Spring: Egypt’s revolt and military takeover, Syria’s civil war, the Islamic State’s “ISIS caliphate,” and Tunisian difficulties in the process of democracy. After demonstrating the regional commonalities and differences in protesters’ demands, Feldman highlighted the states’ experiences and introduced them as separate cases to show a specific outcome. For instance, Tunisia represents liberal political Islam while Egypt shows the institutional one. However, after the rise of ISIS, Syria has become “a rejectionist form of political Islam.” In “The Arab Winter,” Noam Feldman emphasized that the Arab Spring in the Middle East fell short of achieving the majority of its higher aspirations. The Arab spring, unfortunately, deteriorated many people’s lives and turned into a tragedy called “Winter.” The author aims to provide intellectual readers, decision-makers, and researchers with an in-depth political interpretation and analysis of the Arab spring and its outcomes. The main three outcomes that shaped the current phase in the Middle East are the new political experience, Arab nationalism, and political Islam. Collective action was newly introduced into the region, which shaped the people acting on “their own.” The massive spillover of the Arab spring did not hide the reality that Arab nationalism has been fragmented. Dealing with the protests and people separately by the authorities led to the closing of borders, among other factors, motivating the appearance of identity issues. As a result, the Arab spring fed the divisions in some countries like Syria, Libya, Yemen, Feldman argued that the Arab spring’s heroic story had been transformed into uncertainty and something darker. “The Arab Spring promised to end dictatorship and bring selfgovernment to people across the Middle East.” Except in Tunisia, the revolution that started with so much hope has turned into a dictatorship, civil war, extremism, or all three. On the other hand, Feldman contends that the Arab Spring was not a complete failure or even destiny. A brave and painful sequence of 191 Book Review the rest | volume 12 | number 2 | 2022 movement. Therefore, the outcomes of the Arab spring are not direct results of the people’s protests and demands, as, in fact, it is a political will and a continuity of the deep state when the dictators are just interfaced actors. events took place in the Middle East for the first time in modern history when Arab people started working together to pursue freedom. Moreover, Noam claimed that the decision to change governments and regimes in the Middle East this time came from within. It is no secret that the conditions influencing politics, the economy, and other institutional affairs historically were shaped by colonialism and superpowers. Therefore, the history of the region used to be shaped by outsiders, according to the author. The same thing goes for the evaluation of political Islam and Arab nationalism. Arab nationalism has had critical issues and controversies for a long time in the region, even before the Arab spring. Therefore, the rise of politics based on Islamic views itself was an answer to the failure of Arab nationalism. On the other hand, so-called political Islam has continuously fed from the religiosity of societies and is not the same in all countries. As a result, it cannot be ended as society is a power source for this type of politics. Also, Feldman depended a lot on the facts shown and introduced by the media. However, what the media portrays always depends on and serves different agendas and ideological points of view. Feldman wanted to be optimistic about the Arab spring, so he believed that even though these events did not result in constitutional democracy or even a more comfortable life for the majority of those affected, this did not mean that the effort had been useless. However, the political activities that took place in the Middle East during the Arab spring had and still have a considerable impact. He also believes that “failure is always a possible outcome of attempting selfdetermination” and that such efforts may be significant in the future. Feldman’s analyses also ignore the fact that many outsiders interfered and assisted in turning the balance of power in one direction, mostly against people’s will. For instance, the Syrian regime called on Russia and Iran to help control the Syrian people, but it ended with a massive war and casualties. Evaluating the Arab spring cannot be done without referring to the characteristics and demands of the people themselves during the period of so-called “revolution.” An immediate investigation can show that people’s lives became worse than before after what happened. Therefore, if democracy and freedom lead to well-being, this is not the case in the Middle East so far, especially in countries like Egypt and Tunisia, where people are still suffering today or worse than before. Dr. Ramzi Bendebka Department of Inter-Disciplinary Studies, IIUM However, seven years was not enough time to judge an experience based on the shadow of change after a long period of colonialism and dictatorship in the region. The changes are not visible when we target the political leadership and ignore the deep state. For instance, Feldman did not focus on the deep state’s role in the Middle East and how this state still controls the political scene. What happened in the Arab spring countries cannot be well explained and comprehended in terms of the deep state’s transformation and 192 www.cesran.org