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Arab Spring

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Arab Spring
The Arab Spring is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, December 18, 2010. To date, rulers have been forced from power in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. My research topic is going to explore two key features of the Arab Spring: the diffusion effects for democratization in neighboring authoritative regimes like Saudi Arabia, and the possibility of a successful democratic transition of the Arab Spring countries where authoritative political systems have been overthrown. I will cross-reference the similarities and differences between the Catholic wave of democratization and the Arab Spring to deduce the possibilities of a diffused democratic revolution across the region. Moreover, I will examine the issue of sustaining democracy of Arab Spring countries in light of economic aid and political strategies by America and the European Union. The article I am going to examine in this paper is “American and European Responses to the Arab Spring: What’s the Big Idea?” by Uri Dadush and Michelle Dunne, written in 2011. This article concerns with the different forms of economic aid that can be made available to Arab Spring countries in democratic transition because economic aids and reforms are vital elements to secure a political regime, especially in the period of transition to democracy.
Dadush and Dunne show us that the direct economic aid to the Arab Spring countries to ensure a smooth democratic transition has been meager. They examine the current strategic importance of the Arab as the link of Europe to Asia and home to some 54 percent of global oil reserve (Dadush and Michelle, 2011, p. 131). They also raise critical question of how the West can support the democratic transitions that is acceptable to Arab countries and affordable at a time when both continents are confronting a fiscal crisis. Dadush and Michelle also points out that US and European Union’s economic aid have been extremely modest in



References: 1. Dadush, U., & Dunne, M. (2011). American and European Responses to the Arab Spring: What 's the Big Idea?. Washington Quarterly, 34(4), 131-145. doi:10.1080/0163660X.2011.610728 2. Anh, 3. This is a strong review. Good work. 4.0. 4. Sincerely, 5. AG

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