A filmed interview of Professor Eugene Rogan; the conversation ranges from the echoes of nineteenth century constitutionalism in the Tunisian and Egyptian movements today, to other moments of Egyptian empowerment – 1919, the years after 1952 – through the challenges ahead for Egypt and the credibi
Edward Said should have been alive on February 12, 2011
Since the new year, almost every eight hours someone has been executed in Iran. The authoritarian backlash against the major uprising of 2009 has held Iranians in a climate of fear, but the protests this week mark a new chapter for the Green Movement.
With their admirable courage and perseverance the Egyptian people have achieved a great success in toppling a corrupt dictator. But have they pushed their revolution far enough forward to prevent the US-backed army and dominant classes aborting the whole process?
The democratic wave sweeping the Arab world, and shared by Iran, opens a new agenda for the civic activists who helped make it possible, says Ramin Jahanbegloo.
This is a question that may be as interesting for people in Egypt as it is for those in India. The answer also has some implications for activists in the much-vaunted western democracies
The popular revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the middle east are driven by a profound democratic impulse. This represents both learning and test for international democracy actors, says Vidar Helgesen.
Mubarak's totalitarian control of opposition parties and civil society organisations largely delegitimised them. 6 months is a short time to build-up of the essential fabric of democratic organisations that will allow the promise of the revolution to be realised
In the ascendant in Egypt is the socio-political power of a new national-development-oriented coalition of businessmen and military entrepreneurs, as well as the decisive force of micro-enterprise and workers’ organizations consisting of women and youth - a force that portends well. First publishe
It is the deeper process of social transformation which should spread from one country to the other and not just some hollowed out ‘pro-democracy movement’.
A “palm revolution” in the Gulf? Political upheaval in the desert state of Bahrain: there have been calls for a Day of Rage in Bahrain to replace the celebration of 10 years of constitutional monarchy on February 14th which is set to split the country in two
