ARAB SPRING TEN YEARS AFTER: THE CONTINUING QUEST FOR DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The Reves Center for International Studies, in cooperation with the Willam & Mary Law School Center for Comparative Legal Studies and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding presents Professor Tamara Sonn, the 2021 Virtual Kraemer Middle East Distinguished Scholar-In-Residence, who will speak about, "Arab Spring Ten Years After: The Continuing Quest for Democracy in the Middle East," on Friday, March 12, 2021, at 4pm via Zoom.

The explosion of pro-democracy movements across the Arab world in 2011 took many observers by surprise. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “We’re facing an Arab awakening that nobody could have imagined.” But pro-democracy movements are nothing new in the region. This talk will trace the history of pro-democracy movements in the Middle East over the past century, arguing that democratic impulses remain strong and suggesting that the U.S. has an important role to play in nurturing them.

Professor Sonn is Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor in the History of Islam and Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

PLEASE NOTE: At the request of the speaker, this lecture will not be recorded.