Arab Spring
The Arab Spring was a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests (both non-violent and violent), riots, and civil wars in the Arab world that began in December 2010 in Tunisia with the Tunisian Revolution, and spread to other countries. When the wave of initial revolutions and protests faded by mid-2012, some started to refer to the succeeding and still ongoing large-scale conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa as the Arab Winter.
In several cases, the protesters/revolutionaries received outside help, such as from Western countries or other Muslim countries. Motives may have included a desire for regime changes towards regimes more liberal democratic, more Islamic, and/or less of a threat to Israel. See also the article on Color revolutions.
Effects include still ongoing devastating civil wars, such as the Syrian Civil War and in Libya; mass deaths and other atrocities; large scale persecutions of Christians; increased tensions between NATO and Russia; increased tensions between Shia and Sunni Muslims and Shia and Sunni countries; a large scale mass migration of individuals claiming to be refugees from the wars arriving in Europe; terrorists from the wars arriving in Europe; and Islamization and terrorism.
See also
- Civil war - On "regime changes" under certain circumstances increasing the risk of civil wars
- Countries and intelligence: "Limits to democratization"
- A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm
- Syrian Civil War
- Libya
