Social and Political Transformations in the Middle East and Northern Africa Region. An Introduction

Ideology and Politics Journal. 2021. Vol. 19. No. 3. P. 3–9.

Issaev L., Kusa I.

Growing instability and rapid volatility are becoming characteristic features of the socio-political development of the MENA, capable of causing a further increase in the revolutionary process and changing the geostrategic position of this region. The events of the Arab Spring and the impact they had on further reconfiguration of the regional order architecture is still one of the most pressing issues on the agenda of the entire world community. The Arab Spring of 2011 didn’t bring democracy and freedom, prosperity and development. Instead, it exposed even more of deep-rooted divisions in societies throwing the region in disarray prompting old ruling elites to not only face the crisis of their own legitimacy but to address the very consistency of their states and borders, many of which were shaped 100 years ago under Sykes-Picot legacy. The post-Arab Spring environment opened a new chapter of power competition in the region prompting the West to retreat and rethink their priorities while inviting new players to the field laying ground for a new order to be established. The Arab Spring also marked the beginning of the era of new coalitions in the MENA. In the 2010s, an active process of looking for new allies began, unusual alliances emerge, both economically and politically.

Keywords: Islam, political transformations, Middle East and North Africa, regional order